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United States Expands Military Operations in North Africa and Classifies al-Shabaab as a Force “Associated” with Al Qaeda

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 September 2017

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Extract

In late 2016, the United States took two steps to facilitate its confrontation with violent extremist groups in North Africa. In December, the United States classified al-Shabaab as a force “associated” with Al Qaeda for purposes of the 2001 Authorization to Use Military Force (AUMF). And at some unspecified point earlier that year, it appears (but has not been officially confirmed) that the United States and Tunisia reached a memorandum of understanding under which U.S. forces are permitted to launch reconnaissance missions aimed at extremists in Libya from an air base in Tunisia.

Type
Use of Force and Arms Control
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 111 , Issue 2 , April 2017 , pp. 533 - 537
Copyright
Copyright © 2017 by The American Society of International Law 

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References

1 The White House, Report on the Legal and Policy Framework Guiding the United States’ Use of Military Force and Related National Security Operations 5 (Dec. 2016), at https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/sites/whitehouse.gov/files/documents/Legal_Policy_Report.pdf [hereinafter Legal Policy Report].

2 Adam Entous & Missy Ryan, U.S. Has Secretly Expanded Its Global Network of Drone Bases to North Africa, Wash. Post (Oct. 26, 2016), at https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/us-has-secretly-expanded-its-global-network-of-drone-bases-to-north-africa/2016/10/26/ff19633c-9b7d-11e6-9980-50913d68eacb_story.html; Mark Hosenball & Andrea Shalal, U.S. Using Tunisia to Conduct Drone Operations in Libya: U.S. Sources, Reuters (Oct. 26, 2016), at http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-drones-tunisia-idUSKCN12Q2PW.

3 U.S. Dep't of State, Country Reports on Terrorism 2015, at 401 (June 2, 2016), at https://www.state.gov/documents/organization/258249.pdf [hereinafter Country Reports on Terrorism].

4 Id. See also U.S. Mission in Geneva, Secretary Kerry Remarks with Kenyan Foreign Minister Amina Mohamed – South Sudan, Somalia, Syria (Aug. 22, 2016), at https://geneva.usmission.gov/2016/08/23/secretary-kerry-remarks-with-kenyan-foreign-minister-amina-mohamed-south-sudan-somalia-syria.

5 Daugirdas, Kristina & Mortenson, Julian Davis, Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law, 110 AJIL 587, 589 (2016)Google Scholar.

6 Authorization for Use of Military Force, Pub. L. No. 107-40, 115 Stat. 224 (2001) (codified at 50 U.S.C. §1541 (2006)) (authorizing the president “to use all necessary and appropriate force against those nations, organizations, or persons he determines planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001, or harbored such organizations or persons … ”).

7 See Daugirdas & Mortenson, supra note 5, at 589. See also U.S. Dep't of Defense, The Legal Framework for the United States’ Use of Military Force Since 9/11 (Apr. 10, 2015), at https://www.defense.gov/News/Speeches/Speech-View/Article/606662 (noting that the 2001 AUMF authorized the United States to conduct strikes against “individuals who are part of al-Qa'ida in Somalia and Libya”).

8 Question to the Pentagon from Charlie Savage (Mar. 8, 2016), Answer from Lt. Col. Joe Sowers (Mar. 10, 2016), at https://assets.documentcloud.org/documents/2757459/Shabab-DOD-Statement.pdf [hereinafter DOD Question-Answer].

9 Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Instr. 3121.01b, Standing Rules of Engagement (SROE)/Standing Rules for the Use of Force (SRUF) for U.S. Forces 83 (June 13, 2005).

10 Id.; Daugirdas & Mortenson, supra note 5, at 590.

11 DOD Question-Answer, supra note 8. See also U.S. Dep't of Defense Press Release, Statement from Pentagon Press Secretary Peter Cook on Airstrike in Somalia (Mar. 7, 2016), at https://www.defense.gov/News/News-Releases/News-Release-View/Article/687305/statement-from-pentagon-press-secretary-peter-cook-on-airstrike-in-somalia.

12 White House Press Release, Letter from the President—War Powers Resolution (Dec. 11, 2015), at https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/12/11/letter-president-war-powers-resolution. See also DOD Question-Answer, supra note 8.

13 White House Press Release, Letter from the President—Supplemental 6-month War Powers Letter (Dec. 5, 2016), at https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2016/12/05/letter-president-supplemental-6-month-war-powers-letter.

14 Id.

15 Legal Policy Report, supra note 1, at 5.

16 U.S. Africa Command Press Release, U.S. Self-Defense Strikes in Somalia (Sep. 27, 2016), at http://www.africom.mil/media-room/pressrelease/28414/u-s-self-defense-strikes-in-somalia; U.S. Africa Command Press Release, U.S. Forces Conduct Defensive Fires in Somalia Against al-Shabaab Terrorists in May (June 17, 2016), at http://www.africom.mil/media-room/article/28236/u-s-forces-conduct-defensive-fires-in-somalia-against-al-shabaab-terrorists-in-may. See also Homeland Security Committee, Terror Threat Snapshot 7 (Nov. 2016), at https://homeland.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/November-2016-Terror-Threat-Snapshot.pdf.

17 Aislinn Laing, How al-Qaeda and Islamic State Are Competing for al-Shabaab in Somalia, Telegraph (Jan. 12, 2016), at http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/islamic-state/12015075/How-al-Qaeda-and-Islamic-State-are-fighting-for-al-Shabaab-affections-in-Somalia.html.

18 Al-Shabaab Joining al-Qaeda, Monitor Group Says, CNN (Feb. 10, 2012), at http://edition.cnn.com/2012/02/09/world/africa/somalia-shabaab-qaeda/index.html.

19 See, e.g., International Crisis Group, Zakaria Yusuf & Abdul Khalif, The Islamic State Threat in Somalia's Puntland State (Nov. 17, 2016), at https://www.crisisgroup.org/africa/horn-africa/somalia/islamic-state-threat-somalias-puntland-state (“Al-Shabaab's leaders have so far resisted bids by IS to switch their allegiance from al-Qaeda… . Many suspected IS supporters have either been arrested or killed, among them the prominent Al-Shabaab commander, Abu Nu'man Sakow.”). See also Country Reports on Terrorism, supra note 3, at 11 (“Later in the year, factions formed and defections increased as the appeal of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) created divisions within al-Shabaab's core leadership. The organization maintained its allegiance to al-Qa'ida, however, in spite of public appeals from other terrorist groups … .”).

20 Legal Policy Report, supra note 1, at 17.

21 Brian Egan, State Department Legal Adviser, Keynote Address at the American Society of International Law Annual Meeting: International Law, Legal Diplomacy, and the Counter-ISIL Campaign (Apr. 1, 2016), at https://2009-2017.state.gov/s/l/releases/remarks/255493.htm.

22 Entous & Ryan, supra note 2; Hosenball & Shalal, supra note 2.

23 Id.

24 Entous & Ryan, supra note 2

25 Hosenball & Shalal, supra note 2.

26 Tarek Amara, Tunisia Confirms U.S. Drones over Libyan Border, Monitor Islamic State, Reuters (Nov. 23, 2016), at http://www.reuters.com/article/us-tunisia-security-usa-idUSKBN13I14O.

27 Id.

28 Tunisia Takes Receipt of Reconnaissance and Surveillance Aircraft, Drones (Farhat Horchani), Agence Tunis Afrique Presse (Oct. 26, 2016), at http://www.tap.info.tn/en/Portal-Politics/8362587-tunisia-takes-receipt-of-reconnaissance.

29 Ahmed Nadhif, Where Does US-Tunisian Military Cooperation End?, Al-Monitor (Nov. 1, 2016), at http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2016/11/tunisia-us-military-cooperation-secret-base-fight-terrorism.html. See also Tunisia, Sovereign Country, It Is Not Home to Any Foreign Military Base (Harchani), Agence Tunis Afrique Presse (Oct. 27, 2016), at http://www.tap.info.tn/en/Portal-Politics/8365234-tunisia-sovereign-country-it-is-not.

30 Nadif, supra note 29.

31 U.S. Dep't of State, Designation of Tunisia As a Major Non-NATO Ally (July 10, 2015), at https://2009-2017.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2015/07/244811.htm [hereinafter State Dep't Press Release on Designating Tunisia as an MNNA]; White House Press Release, Presidential Memorandum – Designation of the Republic of Tunisia as a Major Non-NATO Ally (July 10, 2015), at https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/07/10/presidential-memorandum-designation-republic-tunisia-major-non-nato-ally.

32 State Dep't Press Release on Designating Tunisia as an MNNA, supra note 31.

33 Id.

34 U.S. Dep't of Defense, Defense Security Cooperation Agency, Tunisia-OH-58D Kiowa Warrior Aircraft Equipment and Support (May 3, 2016), at http://www.dsca.mil/major-arms-sales/tunisia-oh-58d-kiowa-warrior-aircraft-equipment-and-support.

35 U.S. Army, Security Enterprise Strengthens Tunisian Air Force (Jan. 27, 2017), at https://www.army.mil/article/181455/security_enterprise_strengthens_tunisian_air_force. Tunisia received six of the Kiowa Helicopters in February 2017. Chahed Inspects Helicopters Delivered to National Army, Agence Tunis Afrique Presse (Feb. 4, 2017), at http://www.tap.info.tn/en/Portal-Politics/8681783-chahed-inspects.