Kenya:US Soldier Killed in Battle with al-Qaida Affiliate Identified

On 5 January 2019,a US Soldier and two Department of Defense contractors were killed in a firefight with the al-Qaida affiliate al-Shabaab at Manda Bay Airfield on the Kenya coastline.The Islamist extremist militants penetrated the airfield's perimeter and engaged US and Kenyan Defence Force troops with small arms fire and indirect fire (mortars).The battle began in the early hours of the morning and lasted about nine hours,according to local residents.Two other Department of Defense members were wounded and airlifted out for treatment.
Killed was US Army SPC Henry "Mitch" Mayfield,23,of Evergreen Park,Illinois.He was a member of the 1st Battalion,58th Aviation Regiment,164th Theater Airfield Operations Group out of Fort Rucker,Alabama.SPC Mayfield was serving in support of Operation Octave Shield,which targets Islamist extremists based in neighbouring Somalia.The attack is being investigated.*
Manda Bay Airfield is adjacent to Camp Simba,a US Special Operations Forces base,and is used to train Kenyan military personnel and support US operations against the terrorists.In the course of the al-Shabaab assault,five contractor aircraft were destroyed and another one was damaged.*
COL William Garber,commander of the 164th TAOG,said:
Mayfield was a dynamic Soldier who inspires those he served with to excel both on and off duty.*
US Africa Command commander GEN Stephen Townsend,US Army,promised that:
Alongside our African and international partners,we will pursue those responsible for this attack and al-Shabaab,who seek to harm Americans and US interests.*
AFRICOM deployed its East Africa Response Force from Djibouti,Africa to secure the airfield.According to MG William Gayler,AFRICOM director of operations:
The EARF provides a combat-ready,rapid deployment force.The EARF's ability to respond to events spanning a vast area of responsibility provides a proven and on-call reinforcement capability in times of need.
Al-Shabaab is a brutal terrorist organisation.It is an al-Qaida affiliate seeking to establish a self-governed Islamic territory in East Africa,to remove Western influence and ideals from the region,and to further its jihadist agenda.US presence in Africa is critically important to counter-terrorism efforts.*
Core Al-Qaida,led by Ayman al Zawahari,is based in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region and communicates with its affiliates by encrypted communications.Besides al-Shabaab,which is based in Somalia,the affiliates include al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (Algeria) and al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula (Yemen and Saudi Arabia).*
The Kenya attack is not related to the Iran crisis,but part of a long struggle to safeguard the nations of North and East Africa from Islamist extremism.*