Joe Biden has limited the use by the US military of drone attacks against jihadist groups outside theaters of war where the United States is officially engaged, reversing a policy of his predecessor Donald Trump, who had given carte blanche to the military in countries like Somalia.
Any planned strike against jihadist groups outside Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq will now be submitted to the White House before being executed, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said Monday during a press briefing.
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These are
"temporary instructions that have been distributed to ensure that the president has full visibility on important operations
," he said, confirming information from US media.
"It is not permanent and it does not mean the end"
of drone strikes, he added.
"We remain focused on the persistent threat posed by extremist organizations and it is clear that we remain committed to cooperating with our foreign partners to counter these threats."
According to the
New York Times
, these instructions revealed in recent days were quietly transmitted to military commands upon Joe Biden's arrival at the White House on January 20.
Former President Donald Trump had, from the start of his mandate in 2016, relaxed the control that Barack Obama exercised over armed operations against jihadist groups, saying
"to trust (his) generals".
The drone strikes had then multiplied, from 11 bombings in Somalia in 2015 to 64 in 2019, according to the specialized organization Airwars.
They have become the only method of operation in certain countries where the American army only deploys a few elite soldiers in support of government forces, such as Somalia where the United States targets Shebab Islamists, or Libya where they are chasing the Islamic State group.
Even if the military claim that their strikes are
"surgical",
NGOs accuse them of causing civilian casualties, and their effectiveness is questioned.
In the first public report on US military operations in Somalia, published in February 2020, the Inspector General of the Ministry of Defense, Glenn Fine, recalled that the mission entrusted to Africom was officially to have,
"from here 2021, sufficiently diminished the Shebab and the Islamic State group in Somalia, and the other extremist groups in East Africa so that they can no longer harm the interests of the United States ”.
However,
"despite continuous American strikes and American assistance to partner African forces, the shebab appear as a growing threat which aspires to strike American soil
," added the Office of the Inspector General, an organization independent of the Pentagon.
At least ten people were killed Friday evening by the explosion of a car bomb, claimed by the Islamists Shabab, against a popular restaurant in the Somali capital Mogadishu, police said.