U.S. forces host a range day with the Danab Brigade in Somalia, May 9, 2021. US Air Force Photo
After leaving Somalia in December, U.S. forces are “commuting to work” from other parts of Africa and Europe to combat the rising terrorist threat in Somalia and across the region. Read More
East Coast Navy SEALs participate in a nighttime exercise during TRIDENT 17 at the John C. Stennis Space Center, Miss., in 2017. US Navy Photo
Forty percent of U.S. Special Operations Command is now aligned to meet the challenges of great power competition, a shift that means the command needs modernized intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance hardware and software, and electronic warfare defenses, its commander told lawmakers Thursday. Read More
Senior Chief Special Warfare Operator Kyle Milliken, 38. US Navy Photo
The Pentagon has identified the Navy SEAL who was killed this week in Somalia as part of a mission to assist government forces in their fight against al-Shabaab, according to a Saturday statement. Read More
Navy SEALs conduct training on land and in water in 2012. US Navy Photo
A U.S. Navy SEAL was killed on Thursday during a mission assisting Somali government forces outside of the capital of Mogadishu, a U.S. defense official confirmed to USNI News on Friday. Read More
International forces are set to assess the situation of an oil tanker allegedly seized by Somali pirates on Monday, a U.S. defense official told USNI News on Tuesday. Read More
ISIS forces in Iraq
CORRECTION: The following piece was mislabeled as an analysis piece rather than opinion.
President Donald Trump signed an executive order last week that bars citizens from Iran, Iraq, Sudan, Libya, Yemen, Somalia and Syria from entering the United States for 90 days, suspends refugee admission programs for 120 days and indefinitely bans Syrian refugees. Many questions have been raised about this controversial executive action. Since this action is characterized as a national security measure, this analysis will examine two questions: first, will such a policy measurably contribute to U.S. national security interests at home and abroad? And second, why the sudden change in strategy? Read More
A screengrab of an Islamic State propaganda video of militants in Nawfaliyah, Libya in 2015. Image via The Long War Journal
At the Surface Warship Summit in Bucharest, Romania, from Jan. 26 to 28, the commander of NATO’s Allied Maritime Command, Vice Adm. Clive Johnstone expressed concerns regarding several escalating situations in the Mediterranean. Read More
Ships on the high seas can largely be split between two major caregories, merchant ships that connect countries through commerce and national navies formed to ensure that trade continues to flow.
However, in the margins between those two broad groups are fleets that have sought to influence international policy and politics independent of a national flag — non-state navies. Read More
Members of the hardline al Shabaab Islamist rebel group hold their weapons in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, January 1, 2010. Somalia’s hardline Islamist rebel group al Shabaab said on Friday it was ready to send reinforcement to al Qaeda in Yemen should the U.S. carry out retaliatory strikes, and urged other Muslims to follow suit. Reuters Photo
Creating franchises among groups claiming affiliation with al Qaeda or the so-called Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) is among the biggest change in international terrorism, two leading experts told the Atlantic Council on Thursday. Read More
