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President Trump is mulling over launching military strikes on an al-Qaeda-affiliated militant group, The Washington Post reported Wednesday, citing current and former U.S. officials familiar with the deliberations.
The Post noted that there is disagreement among top U.S. officials about going forward with an attack, with the National Security Council’s senior director for counterterrorism, Sebastian Gorka, being among the vocal supporters of launching strikes, the current and former officials said.
One former official told the outlet that the Trump administration’s key aim over the last year has been to get “overflight” rights in Mali, which would allow U.S. officials to fly planes and other surveillance technology over Malian territory. This decision was prompted by the lifting of sanctions on Malian Defense Minister Sadio Camara, who was killed in an April attack by the Mali-based jihadist group Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM).
When asked about the outlet’s report by The Hill, a White House official said the U.S. has urged North and West African governments “to purchase U.S. equipment and services to support their war efforts against the terrorists,” and that terrorism stemming from JNIM in the Sahel region of the Sahara was a “multinational problem.”
“We urge regional partners and NATO allies to support the Alliance of Sahel States in their war against JNIM and ISIS,” the official told The Hill
The official added that Russia was to blame “for the deteriorating security situation.”
“We hope that other African nations take note of Russia’s terrible performance in combating terrorism,” the official said.
While Trump campaigned on ending wars across the globe and redirecting resources back to the U.S., Mali would be the eighth country where the president has ordered strikes since the start of his second term. The U.S. has launched strikes on Nigeria, Somalia, Yemen, Syria, Iraq, Venezuela and Iran since last year.
JNIM has established a strong grip on Mali and has increased its power in the region, launching attacks on coastal West African countries.
Corinne Dufka, an independent expert on the Sahel, told The Post that a U.S. attack on JNIM could lead to counterattacks on Americans in the region.
“If the U.S. helps Malian authorities kill JNIM authorities, it could backfire,” she said. “And they could be squandering an opportunity to de-radicalize and demobilize one of the world’s most sophisticated jihadist organizations.”
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