Dirty US Footprint in Somalia

The U.S. soldiers assist a force of more than 18,000 under the auspices of the African Union, which has been heavily backed by the United States and other Western countries since deploying to Somalia in 2007 with logistics help, intelligence and planning, the officials said.
The Americans also are helping Somalia’s fledgling security forces, which have struggled to assert control beyond Mogadishu and have often been the target of fierce attacks from the Shabab, an Islamic militant group with ties to Al Qaeda that ruled large parts of southern Somalia before being driven from power by the African force.
Though the initial advisor presence is small, a senior Defense Department official said the U.S. was hoping to expand it in the coming year, signaling the possible return of a permanent U.S. presence in Somalia two decades after the battle recounted in the movie “Black Hawk Down” drove the U.S. military out. LINK