A CIA agent was recently killed during an operation in Somalia, an incident that should reignite debate in the United States over the presence of Americans in the war-torn country.
According to the
New York Times
, which disclosed the incident, the CIA agent, who has not been identified, was from the paramilitary branch of the US intelligence agency, known as the "
special activities center
".
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Citing unidentified sources, the daily said he was a former soldier of the elite Navy Seals unit, who was killed in still mysterious circumstances.
According to CNN, the incident happened last weekend, and the CIA agent was injured during the operation.
He died of his injuries.
The CIA has refrained from comment.
Trump plans to withdraw special forces from Somalia
The death comes as outgoing President Donald Trump is considering, according to some media, recalling the some 700 US special forces soldiers who train and advise the Somali army against the Shebab jihadists, affiliated with Al-Qaeda.
At the start of his tenure, Trump extended the latitude of the Pentagon to launch counterterrorism operations, by air or by land, in Somalia.
The US military has therefore increased drone attacks against the shebab since 2017, and discreetly deployed several hundred special forces soldiers to train and assist the Somali army.
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But an official report published in February concluded that "
despite continued US strikes and US assistance to partner African forces, the shebabs are emerging as a growing threat aspiring to strike US soil
."
In early September, five Somali soldiers were killed and an American military adviser seriously injured in Somalia, in an attack claimed by the Shebab.
In January, shebabs attacked a US-Kenyan military base in Lamu, southeast Kenya, near the border with Somalia, killing three Americans.
Affiliated with Al-Qaeda, the shebab, which number 5,000 to 9,000 combatants, swore the loss of the Somali government, supported by the international community and by the 20,000 men of the African Union force in Somalia (Amisom).
Driven from Mogadishu in 2011, they lost most of their strongholds.
But they still control vast rural areas from where they organize guerrilla actions and suicide bombings.