Africom Ordered Airstrike on Stateless Smuggling Boat off Somalia

 

In a little-noticed action last week, U.S. African Command (Africom) took the rare step of bombing a stateless vessel that was suspected of smuggling arms into Somalia. 

The boat was allegedly delivering "advanced conventional weapons" to al-Shabaab militants in Somalia. Al-Shabaab ("The Youth") is an Islamic militant movement with roots in al-Qaeda, and has been fighting the Somali government since the early 2000s. More recently, Western analysts suggest, al-Shabaab has developed ties to Yemen's Houthi terrorist group - based in part on shared interests in arms smuggling.

U.S. special forces have contributed to the counterinsurgency campaign against al-Shabaab for years, but have not dealt the group a decisive defeat. The conflict has recently heated up, with Al-Shabaab fighters making gains near the capital city of Mogadishu, and the Somali government's allies have responded with new urgency. Turkey's army delivered 500 troops into Mogadishu earlier this week, and Africom has launched a new round of airstrikes on remote Al-Shabaab positions. 

Within this urgent context, Africom opted to use revised Pentagon engagement policies to order a rapid airstrike on the inbound smuggling vessel, according to The War Zone. "They have to do things quickly. They did not have time to pull in boats [for a boarding]," a U.S. official told the outlet. 

The Somali government said in a statement that the strike targeted an unflagged ship and a smaller support craft that were operating in Somali territorial waters. It added that in Africom's assessment, "all individuals aboard both vessels were neutralized."

Africom did not provide further details, but suggested that no civilians were harmed.

Historically, suspected smuggling boats in the Mideast and Horn of Africa have been interdicted in search and seizure boardings, often by U.S. Coast Guard teams with law enforcement training; kinetic weapons have almost never been used against cargo vessels in the area, at least in publicized actions.