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Thread: Kenya Base ‘Surprisingly’ Undefended During Attack, US Officials Say.....

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    Kenya Base ‘Surprisingly’ Undefended During Attack, US Officials Say.....

    When al-Shabaab attacked a U.S.-used airfield in Kenya, the al Qaeda affiliate took advantage of a woefully undefended perimeter that allowed its fighters to overrun American and Kenyan forces, according to U.S. and military officials familiar with the details of the Jan. 5 attack that killed a U.S. soldier and two U.S. contractors.


    The incident lays bare one of the fundamental challenges of the U.S. military’s counterterrorism missions across the sprawling African continent. Roughly 6,000 U.S. troops and defense civilians are responsible for the entire U.S. mission in Africa — with roughly the same number of troops that are stationed in Iraq alone. By June, the Trump administration plans to finish trimming the U.S. presence by “fewer than 130” special operators, officials said last year.


    Before the attack, Camp Simba and the nearby airfield were seen as a sleepy backwater outpost, according to one military official. The U.S. military is in Kenya training and assisting the local military in the fightagainst al-Shabaab; Camp Simba is used as a base for American surveillance assets and commandos working with the Kenyans in the porous border region between Somalia and Kenya. “It’s very relaxed, it’s very pretty,” the military official said.



    Despite the obvious vulnerabilities of a rural, densely-jungled base so close to the Somali border — and recent warnings that al-Shabaab was increasingly targeting Americans — officials familiar with the attack say the airfield perimeter wasn’t adequately secured to prevent the kind of penetrating attack that killed the three Americans.


    Security “was surprisingly sparse,” one military official said. “It’s such thick vegetation and such a large area, it wasn’t properly manned or equipped.”.....snip~


    https://www.defenseone.com/news/2020...?oref=d-skybox


    The US Commander should be held responsible. Busted down in rank should be off the top. What say ye?
    History does not long Entrust the care of Freedom, to the Weak or Timid!!!!! Dwight D. Eisenhower ~

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    Quote Originally Posted by MMC View Post
    When al-Shabaab attacked a U.S.-used airfield in Kenya, the al Qaeda affiliate took advantage of a woefully undefended perimeter that allowed its fighters to overrun American and Kenyan forces, according to U.S. and military officials familiar with the details of the Jan. 5 attack that killed a U.S. soldier and two U.S. contractors.


    The incident lays bare one of the fundamental challenges of the U.S. military’s counterterrorism missions across the sprawling African continent. Roughly 6,000 U.S. troops and defense civilians are responsible for the entire U.S. mission in Africa — with roughly the same number of troops that are stationed in Iraq alone. By June, the Trump administration plans to finish trimming the U.S. presence by “fewer than 130” special operators, officials said last year.


    Before the attack, Camp Simba and the nearby airfield were seen as a sleepy backwater outpost, according to one military official. The U.S. military is in Kenya training and assisting the local military in the fightagainst al-Shabaab; Camp Simba is used as a base for American surveillance assets and commandos working with the Kenyans in the porous border region between Somalia and Kenya. “It’s very relaxed, it’s very pretty,” the military official said.



    Despite the obvious vulnerabilities of a rural, densely-jungled base so close to the Somali border — and recent warnings that al-Shabaab was increasingly targeting Americans — officials familiar with the attack say the airfield perimeter wasn’t adequately secured to prevent the kind of penetrating attack that killed the three Americans.


    Security “was surprisingly sparse,” one military official said. “It’s such thick vegetation and such a large area, it wasn’t properly manned or equipped.”.....snip~


    https://www.defenseone.com/news/2020...?oref=d-skybox


    The US Commander should be held responsible. Busted down in rank should be off the top. What say ye?
    "Camp Simba itself — the residential compound about a mile north of the airfield, where U.S. troops sleep — is well-cleared, said a congressional source with expertise on military operations in the region."

    Let's see what the investigation uncovers. It looks like the small number of Americans there did what they could.
    Call your state legislators and insist they approve the Article V convention of States to propose amendments.


    I pledge allegiance to the Constitution as written and understood by this nation's founders, and to the Republic it created, an indivisible union of sovereign States, with liberty and justice for all.

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    Fewer than 20 al-Shabaab militants assaulted Camp Simba, which was home to around 100 US personnel along with an undisclosed number of Kenyan troops. It was the first al-Shabaab targeting of US military personnel …


    The raid began with an al-Shabaab attack on the Manda Air Strip targeting a taxiing Havilland Dash 8 surveillance plane with RPGs. Two American contractors flying for L3 Technologies, employed by the US Department of Defense, were killed in this initial attack and a third injured.[5] A US army soldier acting as air traffic controller from a truck was killed in the ensuing gunfight that erupted after the attack on the plane.[5] Meanwhile a dozen US soldiers from the 3rd Marine Raider Battalion based in Camp Simba responded to the attack.[5] The fighting continued for around an hour and the al-Shabaab attack was repelled.[1] Five al-Shabaab militants died in the attack and five were arrested, according to the Kenya Defence Forces and AFRICOM.[6][2]


    In the raid, al-Shabaab targeted vehicles and aircraft at the airstrip with RPGs, and six aircraft and land vehicles were either destroyed or damaged, along with several fuel tankers.[7][4] Some of the airframes lost included a De Havilland Canada Dash 8 and two helicopters operated by US contractors.[4][7] The Havilland Dash 8 was in use as a spy plane, and was configured for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions in the region


    According to The New York Times, an investigation based on eyewitness reports revealed that the Kenyan troops stationed at the Manda Air Strip hid in grass fields during the attack.[5] This was denied by the Kenya Defence Forces.


    In response to the raid, on 9 January AFRICOM sent two of its senior military officers to oversee a formal investigation....snip~



    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_Simba_attack
    History does not long Entrust the care of Freedom, to the Weak or Timid!!!!! Dwight D. Eisenhower ~

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    From what I gather it was an ODB- that likely had several ODAs attached to it.
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    Air Force.
    “Extremism in defense of liberty is no vice. Moderation in pursuit of justice is no virtue.” - Barry Goldwater

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