How elite US army repelled Al-Shabaab raid in Ballidogle Airfield in Somalia
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Staff reporter GAROWE ONLINE
- Posted On 07-01-2023, 10:18AM
NAIROBI, Kenya - Fresh details have emerged on how elite US Africa Command forces stationed in Somalia repelled what could have been the most disastrous attack by Al-Shabaab militants on their main base in Somalia about three years ago, in an attack which left a couple of local troops dead.
The Task and Purpose website which reports detailed operations by the US army has revealed that the elite soldiers from the New Jersey Army National Guard were behind the intense planning, preparation, and foresight to thwart a massive attack by al-Shabaab militants on the airfield they were guarding in southern Somalia on Sept. 30, 2019.
According to the publication, the attack featured at least three Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Devices [VBIEDs] and 12 heavily armed Al-Shabaab militants. This, the researchers explained, was probably the “largest battle against al-Shabaab militants since Operation Gothic Serpent,” the 1993 operation to capture the Somali leader Mohamed Farrah Aidid, which included the infamous ‘Black Hawk Down incident.
“The key was not engaging with the enemy until they were committed to utilizing a specific route that would ultimately be a fatal choice for them,” said Capt. London Nagai, commander of the base defenders that day, in the press release.
“Over time, using covert and overt means, we forced the enemy to attack in the way we wanted and in a place most advantageous to us,” Nagai added.
The attack, details revealed by CIA World Factbook noted, would have been catastrophic had it not been for extensive preparations by the New Jersey National Guard's Charlie Troop, 1st Squadron, 102nd Cavalry Regiment.
Such preparations were necessary because of the dangerous location of the Ballidogle Airfield which is located at least 60 miles northwest of Somalia's capital Mogadishu. The airfield was basically isolated making it an easy target for Al-Shabaab.
“There was no question the base would be attacked,” the press release said. “Al-Shabaab militants had been probing the base perimeter to locate defensive positions and get a picture of where and how the American soldiers would respond.”
Both drone pilots and special operations forces worked at the base, according to Connecting Vets. Overall, the U.S. “works with the federal government of Somalia to promote stability and to prevent al-Shabaab, an al Qaeda affiliate, from conducting attacks against American interests and the homeland,” several U.S. military officials wrote in October.
All the time, the army was constantly prepared for a fight with the unseen enemy. Usually, Charlie Troop consists of about 70 soldiers but in Somalia, the squad had about 160 troops with fire direction officers and a mortar platoon from the 112th Field Artillery Regiment and the 113th Infantry Regiment, respectively. These troops worked together to prepare for an attack.
“We would rehearse at all hours of the day and with live rounds,” Nagai said. “Charlie Troop exercised and refined this scenario, along with others, over and over again.”
One of the most difficult parts of preparing for the attack was holding fire during al-Shabaab probing attacks. The New Jersey soldiers did not want to reveal their defense plan until it was too late for the militants.
“The hardest part for me was having to tell soldiers we couldn’t fully engage the enemy when they would use recon by fire or other aggressive tactics,” Nagai said. “We didn’t want to show them how we would respond.”
Occasionally, the soldiers would depart from the Airfield to work on “defensive reconnaissance patrols,” get to know the terrain and try to win the support of local leaders, according to Connecting Vets.
“Nagai had devised a plan to expand their defensive posture outside the fence line,” Lt. Col. Richard Karcher, commander of Task Force Warrior, of which Charlie Troop was a component, said in the press release. “He was doing stuff right that you don’t see lieutenant colonels or colonels doing correctly.”
At the time of the attack, the Charlie Troop team was preparing to take a good pump and soccer balls to one of the villages in Somalia. Intelligence reports had cautioned them of the impending attack and Karcher spotted a plume of smoke northwest of the airfield where a truck filled with explosives had detonated prematurely.
“It felt like artillery,” he said.
At that time, one of the US Air Force planes was almost taking off and a United Nations flight coming to land at the base with more than 50 construction workers working on the runway. Immediately, the soldiers moved the workers to safety, with the Air Force plane taking off immediately and the UN flight diverted elsewhere.
While Karcher ran to the base operations center, the report indicates, Nagai was already moving Charlie Troop soldiers onto the towers guarding the base, closing entry points, posting snipers, and redeploying the convoy that was supposed to leave the wire into defensive positions on the airfield. The base quick reaction force moved toward the airfield and the mortar teams went to the mortar pits. Now it was just a matter of waiting for the next move.
“Our base defense platoon immediately started to fill all the fighting positions along the base perimeter,” Nagai said.
The well-equipped base had cameras that could monitor activities on the battlefield. This helped the soldiers also detect the next threat; a truck that had broken off from a convoy carrying construction materials and was now heading straight for the airfield’s fence line.
The soldiers opened fire on the approaching truck which had armoured windows that allowed the driver to move closer and detonate the explosives.
However, a month earlier, Nagai had an engineer platoon dig a wide, deep ditch around the airfield that would stop any vehicle smaller than a tank from getting to the fence line. The engineers did their job well: the truck drove into the ditch and the driver could not back out as soldiers kept shooting the vehicle. Eventually, the truck stopped moving.
“The driver was definitely dead,” Karcher said.
But around 5 minutes later, the militants detonated the truck remotely, with the ditch saving the day. The explosion dug a 20-foot-deep crater into the earth, blew a hole in the fence line 200 yards wide, bent reinforced hangar doors on the other side of the airfield, and threw shrapnel across the base.
Later, the FBI later estimated that between 4,000 and 5,000 pounds of explosives were used in the bomb, making it the largest VBIED in Africa at the time, Karcher said.
Importantly, this wasn't the end of the attack since another truck came in about 10 minutes later, forcing the soldiers to open fire.
The truck driver stopped at the newly-formed crater and about a dozen uniformed al-Shabaab militants sprung out holding assault rifles, hand grenades, machine guns, rocket-propelled grenades, and ammunition. But it was clear the fight was not going the way expected to, as the fighters probably expected to dismount inside the base, rather than outside the fence line, the press release said.
“They came out looking very surprised,” said Karcher. “The leader looked really pissed off.”
The off-balance fighters “were completely unorganized,” and were not taking cover, the soldier added. Army snipers immediately fired on the militants, half of whom were dead within five minutes. The rest took cover behind nearby berms and began firing rocket-propelled grenades.
“At that point, Capt. Nagai looked at me and said: ‘we need to use our mortar systems,’” Karcher said. The mortars answered the call with deadly efficiency, thanks again to the preparation which took place beforehand.
“The mortar crews had predetermined points already registered,” Karcher said. “They started firing and that was it.”
After the shooting stopped, surveillance cameras showed another truck heading toward the base, forcing the US army to use a drone to destroy it as the fighting came to an end.
It was a one-sided victory for the 102nd, no members of which had been injured, the press release said, though at the time it was widely reported that one soldier had sustained a concussion. It was the first time a New Jersey unit had been involved in a combined arms battle since World War II, according to the press release.
“The success on that day was not due to luck or heroism,” Nagai said. “It was due to disciplined soldiers executing a well-rehearsed battle drill that was exercised and refined over and over again.”
However, the battle also demonstrated how much firepower al-Shabaab could bring to bear. “This attack, though ineffective, demonstrates the direct threat al-Shabaab poses to Americans, our allies, and interests in the region,” said Army Maj. Gen. William Gayler, then-director of operations, U.S. Africa Command, said at the time.
Months later in 2020, Gayler was proven right after the Al-Shabaab militants attacked Manda Airfield in coastal Kenya which destroyed seven aircraft besides leaving three Americans dead. Those killed were two contractors Dustin Harrison and Bruce Triplett, along with Army Spc. Henry Mayfield Jr.
Though U.S. and allied service members fought bravely to repel the attack, an investigation by U.S. Africa Command found that Manda Bay’s security preparations were not equal to the dangers surrounding the base.
“The Security Forces’ consistent and predictable inactivity and non-involvement in ‘improving their foxhole’ on a daily basis demonstrated complacency that may have portrayed the airfield as a vulnerable target to Al-Shabaab fighters,” Army Gen. Paul Funk II said at the time.
After the Somalia attack, several of the soldiers involved received the Combat Infantry Badge, the Combat Action Badge, or the Combat Medical Badge, depending on their job title. Al-Shabaab did not launch any follow-up attacks, and 76 days later the members of the 102nd went home.
In August 2020, several members of Charlie Troop received a range of awards including the Bronze Star and the Commendation Medal with Combat device for their performance in the battle.
“The discipline and bravery of the soldiers was something I will never be able to fully explain and something I am sure I will never see again,” Nagai said.
The US soldiers were withdrawn from Somalia in 2021 following an order by former President Donald Trump who anchored his decision on cost-saving but the troops would be reinstated last year following a recommendation by the US Senate and the Pentagon after Al-Shabaab attacks increased in the country.
For about months now, the soldiers have been working closely with the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia [ATMIS], the Somali National Army [SNA], and local militia to dislodge Al-Shabaab from critical strategic towns. The mission, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud recently noted, has succeeded to a larger extent.
GAROWE ONLINE
