US military fights Shebab through regional allies
Instead of directly attacking Somalia's Shebab militants, the United States provides crucial intelligence and training to other armies battling the Islamists in a deliberately low-profile approach, officials said Tuesday. A bloody four-day siege of a Nairobi shopping mall claimed by Shebab has focused attention on US-backed efforts to weaken the insurgents, which American officials claim have been effective despite the attack over the weekend. From airfields stretching from Djibouti to Entebbe, the US military and intelligence agencies fly surveillance drones to track Shebab's movements while American special operations forces have taught tactics to troops from Kenya, Ethiopia and the Somali government, officials and experts say. "It is definitely a light footprint approach," Seth Jones, a former adviser to special operations commanders in Afghanistan and the Pentagon, told AFP.
