The group launched an attack January 5 on Manda Bay Airfield killing U.S. Army Spc. Henry Mayfield Jr., of Illinois, and two contractors. Shabab also destroyed a number of contractor-operated civilian aircraft.
Al-Shabab said in a message that the raid on Camp Simba should “serve as a stern warning” for African forces that “when the situation gets difficult” American troops will “abandon you" just as they did with the Syrian YPG after entangling them in an “unwinnable war.”
The YPG, or the People’s Protection Units, is a Kurdish faction that fights under the larger umbrella of the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces.
Turkey believes the YPG is a terrorist organization and launched a military operation in northern Syria to combat the group, just days after President Donald Trump ordered U.S. troops to withdraw from the area near Syria’s border with Turkey.
There are still roughly 500-600 U.S. troops in Syria.
Shabab warned African forces on the continent that after U.S. troops abandon them nothing will save them from the “wrath of the Mujahideen."
U.S. Africa Command’s East Africa Response Force is now in Manda Bay, Kenya to bolster security of U.S. forces there — following an attack at the Kenya Defense Force Military Base that took the lives of one U.S. service member and two Department of Defense contractors on Sunday.
Analysts and national security exerts have argued that Trump’s decision to withdraw troops from Syria could have major repercussions and complicate already stressed relationships with other U.S. partner forces across the globe.
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