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.*

US Strikes al-Qaida Group in Somalia - dozens killed

According to a press release from US Africa Command,US Forces,in coordination with the Somali Government,conducted an airstrike against al-Shabaab Islamist extremists,who are associated with al-Qaida,on 12 October 2018.It took place in the Haradere area of Mugdu Province,Somalia.The current assessment is that about 60 militants were killed,which makes it the biggest strike since 21 November 2017,in which around 100 al-Shabaab members were killed.No civilians were killed or injured in the latest strike,the assessment found.
Such strikes reduce al-Shabaab's ability to plot future attacks;disrupt the leadership networks;and degrade the freedom of manoeuvre in the region,AFRICOM said.*
The enemy has used parts of Southern and Central Somalia to plot and direct terror attacks;steal humanitarian aid;extort the local populace to fund its operations;and shelter radical terrorists,thus destabilising Somalia and its neighbours,while threatening the interests of the US and its allies in the region.*
Baledogle Airfield,70 miles/112.654 km northwest of the capital Mogadishu,is a former Soviet airbase now used by multinational forces,including the US,which has launched drone attacks against al-Shabaab from it.It is believed that armed General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper drones were sent on this latest mission.The US has also launched  missiles from US Navy warships against the militants.
MQ-9s are additionally used for high altitude surveillance missions.The Reaper is flown by the Royal Air Force and Italian Air Force as well.*

Special Report:US Soldier KIA in Somalia Identified - Green Beret had intel links

The Pentagon has identified the US Army Soldier killed in action by the al-Qaida affiliate al-Shabaab on Friday in Somalia as SSG Alexander W. Conrad,26,of Chandler,Arizona.The native of Mesa,Arizona was a member of 1st Battalion,3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne) out of Fort Bragg,North Carolina.SSG Conrad was serving alongside Somali National Security Forces and Kenyan Defence Forces in Jubaland State when they were attacked around 1445 hrs by mortars and small arms fire.He was killed by indirect enemy fire,i.e.,mortar shells or an IED.Four other US Soldiers and a Somali Soldier were wounded.
The allied forces were on a clearing operation to remove al-Shabaab from contested areas and villages and establish a permanent combat outpost to expand the control of the the Somali Federal Government.*
According to 3rd Special Forces Group,SSG Conrad had joined the Army in 2010 and,following basic and follow-on training,was stationed at Joint Base Lewis-McChord,Washington State,as a human intelligence (HUMINT) collector.While stationed at the Joint Base,he pulled two tours in Afghanistan.Subsequently,SSG Conrad advanced his HUMINT collection skills by completing the French Basic Language Course at the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center in Monterey,California in 2016.He was consequently assigned to 3rd SFG as a HUMINT Non-Commissioned Officer.*
By way of context,it should be noted that,indeed,3rd SFG has from its inception in 1963 been oriented to Africa and the Middle East,being nearly continuously active in the wars in Afghanistan and,somewhat less,in Iraq as well,at the peak of those conflagrations.As the US role in these wars was reduced,3rd SFG began to shift its emphasis to Africa and the rise of militant Islam on that continent.
Before SSG Conrad's death,3rd SFG had sustained four other KIAs in Africa in October 2017,when four of its Soldiers were killed in Niger in West Africa.
The remaining al-Shabaab stronghold in Somalia is the regions around the capital,Mogadishu.At the time of the Jubaland engagement,the 3rd SFG was providing advice,assistance and aerial surveillance to the African forces there by means including an armed UAV. *
SSG Conrad was posthumously awarded the Purple Heart and Meritorious Service Medals.He had also been decorated with the Army Commendation Medal (3rd award);Army Good Conduct Medal (2nd award);Combat Action Badge;Basic Parachutist Badge;and Meritorious Unit Commendation (second award).*
"Greater love hath no man than this,that a man lay down his life for his friends."
- John 15:13                 '

East Africa War:US Special Operator Killed in Somalia Firefight

A member of the US Special Operations Forces was killed Friday and four others wounded when their position came under attack by al-Shabaab militants in Jubaland State,about 217 miles SW of the Somali capital Mogadishu.A Somali Soldier was also reportedly wounded in the mortar and small arms ambush by the Islamist extremists,who have formally been a unit of al-Qaida since 2012.US SOFs and about 800 Somali and Kenyan forces were on an operation to clear al-Shabaab from the area north of the port of Kismayo.US Army Green Berets,US Navy SEALs and US Marine Raiders are all active in the unstable nation in East Africa,serving in US Africa Command in an advise and assist capacity for the local forces.*
In October 2017,al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for a VBIED attack that killed more than 500 people in Mogadishu;while in May 2017,another US Soldier was killed in an al-Shabaab attack about 40 miles west of Mogadishu.*
US Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) reportedly has a fleet of armed Reaper drones in Somalia for self-defence airstrikes or assistance to East African nations;while the CIA has a covert base at Mogadishu airport,possibly sending up both armed and unarmed surveillance drones,not to mention deploying members of its ultra-secret Ground Branch paramilitary division.
JSOC has also used attack helicopters;AC-130 gunships;and fighter jets to help both Kenya and Ethiopia in their struggle against al-Shabaab.*
The US has been involved in counterterror operations against militant Islam in Somalia since the early years of this century.Around 500 US troops are believed to be in Somalia.*
The US Marine Corps Raider Regiment is the principal combat component of Marine Corps Special Operations Command (MARSOC).

Pentagon Identifies US Service Member Killed in Somalia - New England native excelled in special ops

The Pentagon has announced that Senior Chief Special Warfare Operator Kyle Milliken,38,of Falmouth Maine,was killed while on a raid with Somali commandos against al-Qaida affiliate al-Shabaab about 40 miles west of the Somali capital Mogadishu.SCSWO Milliken and his team were helicoptered into the raid and immediately took fire from the militants.He was wounded along with two other Americans and medivaced to the neighbouring nation of Djibouti,where he died of his wounds.*
SCSWO Milliken was a husband and father who resided with his family in Virginia Beach,Virginia.He was a member of SEAL Team Six,the unit that killed Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.SCSWO Milliken was a veteran of both the Iraq and Afghan Wars,earning a total of four Bronze Star Medals for his service,among many others.A graduate of the University of Connecticut,he had been in the Navy for 13 years.*
Fifty US Special Warfare Operatives are currently serving in a train and advise capacity with the African Union forces in Somalia.SCSWO Milliken was the first US service member to be killed in action in Somalia since 1993,when 18 US service members died in the Battle of Mogadishu,which was dramatised in the movie "Blackhawk Down."*
According to a Somali official,the special operation was surgically targeting senior members of al-Shabaab hiding in the area and a media outlet supportive of the Islamist extremists.It was considered a success as several of the terrorists were killed.*
SCSWO Milliken will be interred in Arlington National Cemetery.