War on terror

Inside Trump's escalating war on terror in Africa

Despite reports the Pentagon will pull back its presence in Africa, the Trump administration’s military campaign against a radical Islamist group in Somalia is accelerating to a record level amid allegations from leading human rights groups that the U.S. is killing civilians and perpetrating war crimes.

At a time when the Pentagon has talked of pulling back its footprint in Africa, the U.S. military has carried out 28 airstrikes so far this year against the al-Shabab terror group in Somalia, records show — more than 60 percent of the total for all of last year.

If the current 2019 pace continues, the U.S. may nearly triple the number of assaults from 2018. There were just 31 strikes in 2017, according to figures compiled by the Foundation for Defense of Democracy’s (FDD) Long War Journal project.

The sharply accelerated tempo of the bombing campaign — which began during the waning days of the Obama administration and has steadily ramped up since President Trump came into office — raises new questions after top military officials in recent weeks said they’ll pull back the number of troops stationed across the continent.