Ilhan Omar challenges Biden’s admiration for new airstrikes in Somalia
WASHINGTON – Somali-born US congressman Ilhan Omar is now disputing new airstrikes in Somalia by the US Africa Command, which has helped the Horn of Africa nation contain the threat of Al- Shabaab over the past two years.
This comes after Tuesday’s airstrike by the United States that targeted suspected members of Al-Shabaab in central Somalia, where American commandos assisted Danab’s special forces, which had been attacked by linked militants. at Al-Qaida.
In her latest criticism, the representative for the 5th District of Minnesota accused the United States of failing to compensate the families of innocent civilians, who ended up being killed by the airstrikes, in a letter written to President Joe Biden, a Democrat she supported in the November 2020 polls.
Tuesday’s airstrike in Somalia was the first in as many months under Joe Biden’s administration, but the Defense Ministry also argues that it was a rescue mission strategy given it targeted militants who attacked special forces that were attacked by Al-Shabaab.
Omar, who grew up in Somalia before spending four years in a Kenyan refugee camp, represents a district with a large American Somali population. She is seen as a right-leaning Social Democrat in American politics.
The airstrike near the town of Galkayo targeted militants of al-Shabab, a Somali-based insurgency group that the United States has long fought in its so-called global war on terror. Sullivan’s directive asked the military and the CIA to get permission from the White House before launching attacks in places like Somalia and Yemen.
In January 2021, nearly 700 US troops stationed in Somalia were pulled out by President Donald Trump’s regime, who claimed it was part of the economy strategy. Trump was also keen to withdraw a number of American soldiers working across Africa.
According to the New York Times, Tuesday’s attack happened without White House approval. In that case, the militants allegedly attacked members of an elite US-trained Somali commando group called Danab, and Pentagon spokeswoman Cindi King said AFRICOM had the power to authorize the retaliates independently on the basis of the army’s “collective self-defense” rationale.
No American troops were actually with Danab’s commandos when the attack took place, as they were advising the unit from a distance.
Omar found the reasoning unconvincing. “As you know,” she wrote in the letter, “’collective self-defense’ is a term with varying meanings in national and international law, and particularly in the context of your ongoing review of the authorities. airstrike, its use deserves a more detailed explanation in this case.This is also an important and timely question as it seems to suggest your administration’s broader approach to airstrikes in Somalia.
The strike on Somalia came amid growing mobilization in the House of Representatives and the Senate to regain control of the vast war powers the White House has amassed since 9/11. On Tuesday, Senators Mike Lee, R-Utah, Chris Murphy, D-Conn., And Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., Introduced the National Security Powers Act to assert congressional authority over the deployment of force, l export of arms and declaration of national emergency.
Last month, the House voted to repeal the 2002 authorization for the use of military force, or AUMF, which gave the go-ahead to the Iraq war and which Trump used to justify the assassination Iranian General Qassim Suleimani. But the much bigger endorsement – and therefore the most difficult to repeal – is the 2001 AUMF which authorized war in Afghanistan and which the United States has continually invoked to defend air strikes against suspected terrorists around the world. whole, pushing the militants to seek its overthrow.
Its repeal, however, would still be far from a guarantee that the White House will defer to Congress. Last month, Biden claimed Article II of the Constitution provided him with self-defense authorities that would streamline airstrikes against Iranian-backed militias in Syria and Iraq.
Citing an airstrike effort that began under the Trump administration, Omar noted that “the increase in airstrikes corresponded to a near doubling of terrorist attacks against civilians by Al-Shabaab,” the exact opposite of the goals. declared by the administration.
“It is essential that we realize that we are not just going to crush the problem of Al-Shabaab,” Omar wrote, “and that any kinetic action is part of a larger strategy focused primarily on the security of the people. Somalia and the stability of the Somali state.
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