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White Home press secretary Jen Psaki falsely claimed the USA doesn’t have any troops in Yemen or Somalia whereas defending the total U.S. navy withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Psaki argued the U.S. would be capable of conduct counterterrorism operations in Afghanistan with out troops there, primarily based on the examples of Yemen and Somalia, the place the U.S. does actually have troops on the bottom, opposite to her claims.
This comes after the U.S. navy introduced Monday it had accomplished its Afghanistan withdrawal, with Central Command chief Gen. Frank McKenzie estimating the variety of U.S. residents left behind was “within the very low a whole bunch” whereas Secretary of State Antony Blinken mentioned there are “nonetheless a small variety of Individuals,” estimated as underneath 200 and “seemingly nearer to 100,” who stay.
Psaki was requested Monday if Individuals worldwide have been now at extra threat due to the large quantity of U.S.-sourced weaponry the Taliban gained possession of. Leaving an enemy with out weaponry is not all the time attainable throughout a withdrawal, she mentioned earlier than making inaccurate claims about U.S. troops overseas.
“Our capacities — our over-the-horizon capacities, by the best way, killed to ISIS terrorists simply final week, proceed to be utilized by our women and men on the bottom — stay in place and stay in place within the area,” Psaki mentioned. “There are different elements of the world, Somalia, Libya, Yemen, the place we do not have a presence on the bottom and we nonetheless forestall terrorist assaults or threats to U.S. residents.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken made a equally false declare on NBC’s Meet the Press on Sunday.
“We now have the capability around the globe, together with in Afghanistan, to take — to seek out and to take strikes in opposition to terrorists who need to do us hurt,” Blinken mentioned. “And as you recognize, in nation after nation, together with locations like Yemen, like Somalia, giant elements of Syria, Libya, locations the place we do not have boots on the bottom on any sort of ongoing foundation, we’ve the capability to go after people who find themselves making an attempt to do us hurt. We’ll retain that capability in Afghanistan.”
Jake Sullivan, Biden’s nationwide safety adviser, informed CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, “What we’ve confirmed over time in different nations … is that we’re able to suppressing the terrorism risk, together with exterior plotting capabilities, with out a big everlasting presence on the bottom. We now have finished that in locations like Libya and Somalia, locations like Yemen, and we’ll do this in Afghanistan in addition to we go ahead.”
Though the U.S. doesn’t have an introduced presence in Libya, President Joe Biden despatched a letter to Congress in June making it clear U.S. troops remained in Yemen and Somalia.
Biden wrote, “A small variety of United States navy personnel are deployed to Yemen to conduct operations in opposition to al-Qaeda within the Arabian Peninsula and ISIS.”
The president additionally wrote, “On the course of the prior administration, the vast majority of United States forces in Somalia redeployed or repositioned to neighboring nations previous to my inauguration.” He mentioned that “United States navy personnel conduct periodic engagements in Somalia to coach, advise, and help regional forces, together with Somali and African Union Mission in Somalia forces, throughout counterterrorism operations.”
He added that U.S. forces “primarily based outdoors Somalia proceed to counter the terrorist risk posed by ISIS and al-Shabaab, an related power of al-Qaeda, in Somalia.”
Gen. Stephen J. Townsend, the top of U.S. Africa Command, mentioned in late June the U.S. may take into account including extra troops in Africa.
“I have been speaking forwards and backwards with my civilian leaders within the Division of Protection, the Secretary of Protection, giving him choices,” Townsend mentioned, in accordance with Air Power Journal. Townsend mentioned it’s best to work “aspect by aspect, head to head, shoulder to shoulder” with U.S. companions in Africa.
Townsend mentioned in April that many U.S. troops had been “commuting to work” on planes from neighboring nations into Somalia to assist prepare Somali troops on counterterrorism, noting a “restricted footprint” of lower than 100 troops remaining.
It was reported by the New York Occasions in June that “a small variety of Individuals — properly underneath 100, navy officers say — remained in Somalia to assist coordinate info from surveillance plane that assist observe Shabab and different militant threats.”
Voice of America reported in August that “AFRICOM has been making an attempt to make do, sending troops into Somalia for periodic coaching missions to complement about 100 troops now working largely out of the U.S. Embassy.”
Biden misled about U.S. troop presence in Syria throughout his interview with George Stephanopoulos on ABC Information a couple of days after the autumn of Kabul.
“Al Qaeda, ISIS, they metastasize. There is a considerably larger risk to the USA from Syria. There is a considerably larger risk from East Africa. There’s important larger risk to different locations on this planet than it’s from the mountains of Afghanistan,” Biden mentioned. “And we’ve maintained the flexibility to have an over-the-horizon functionality to take them out. We’re — we do not have navy in Syria to be sure that we’re gonna be protected.”
CNN reported an nameless administration official informed them that Biden “was talking in regards to the al Qaeda presence in northwest Syria, which stays a risk to the USA and is being addressed with out American troops on the bottom” and that “there are a small variety of U.S. and coalition forces on the bottom in japanese Syria in areas that had been the ISIS caliphate.” That’s not what he mentioned within the interview.
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