U.S. Africa Command

U.S. Africa Command is seeking new authorities to carry out armed drone strikes targeting al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab fighters in eastern Kenya, four American government officials told the New York Times anonymously in a report published on Tuesday.

The U.S. military steadily ramped up airstrikes against the Somalian terrorist group al-Shabaab over the past year, shifting its focus away from the dying Islamic State to al-Qaeda’s most feral ally with relatively little media attention.

American military airstrikes killed nearly 60 jihadis from the al-Qaeda-linked al-Shabaab terrorist group in Somalia over the last three days, U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) announced.

U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has reportedly carried out America’s first ever drone strikes targeting al-Qaeda terrorists in jihadi breeding ground Libya last weekend, suggesting a possible expansion of the United States mission in the war-ravaged nation.

WASHINGTON, DC — The American armed forces are maintaining surveillance over “Chinese encroachment and emergent military presence” in the African country of Djibouti, home to Beijing’s first overseas naval base, the top U.S. commander in the continent told lawmakers.

Deteriorating security conditions in Africa fueled by jihadist groups are forcing U.S. troops to expand their military footprint with “limited resources,” placing their lives in peril, the Military Times reported this week.

The number of Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL)-linked jihadists in northern Somalia is “growing significantly in strength,” reaching up to 200 terrorists already this year, the United Nations reported a few days after U.S. airstrikes targeted the terrorist group for the first time in the African country.

The first publicly announced American airstrikes in Libya under U.S. President Donald Trump targeted a camp operated by the renascent Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) branch in the country, killing 17 terrorists and destroying three vehicles, revealed the Pentagon Monday.

The Africa-based jihadist groups Boko Haram and al-Shabaab have intensified their efforts against U.S. interests in response to increasing American military pressure against their operations approved by President Donald Trump.

Moscow has recently dispatched an estimated 22-member special forces unit to a base in western Egypt on the country’s border with Libya, a move that can exacerbate the ongoing U.S. concerns about Russia’s interference there, reports Reuters.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Russia’s involvement in war-ravaged Libya “is very concerning,” the top American commander in Africa told the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The United States military has officially ended Operation Odyssey Lightning, which was launched on August 1 to help Libyan forces push Islamic State (ISIS) militants from their stronghold of Sirte.

The United States military in Africa has deployed 47 troops described by President Barack Obama as “equipped for combat” to protect American personnel and facilities in Juba, the capital of civil-war-ravaged South Sudan, the White House and U.S. Africa Command have announced.

The flow of foreign fighters going into Iraq and Syria to join the Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) has dropped by 90 percent to nearly 200 per month within the past year, but the jihadist group has managed to double its presence in Libya over a similar period, according to U.S. military officials.

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The number of Islamic State (ISIS/ISIL) jihadists in Libya who aspire to attack Europe or the United States has more than doubled to between 4,000 and 6,000 in the last 12 to 18 months, but militias there have managed to limit the terrorist group’s growth, says the commander of U.S. forces in Africa.

The Department of Defense (DOD) is considering deploying military advisers to train local forces to combat Boko Haram jihadists in violence-tormented Nigeria, Agence-France Presse (AFP) has learned from a U.S. official.