Mercs at Work in Somalia

The African Union does not have any helicopters in Somalia. The Somali Army does not have any helicopters that actually work in Somalia. So why is it we keep seeing helicopter attacks in Somalia?

Because the TFG has hired western security companies as mercenaries. Here is the latest attack information.

An unidentified military helicopter blasted rockets at Somali pirate skiffs on Saturday evening in middle-shabele region, coastal Somalia, according to residents, Radio Garowe Reports.

Residents in Warsheekh told Garowe online that the skiffs reached on Friday in that region while their crews were jailed by the Somali insurgent group, Al-Shabaab on Saturday.

A report says helicopters in Warsheekh were seen for the past of two days after they fired on it.

“We heard heavy blast in coastal part of Somalia in midnight, in the morning the skiffs were not there, we only saw some parts of the boats own by pirates who were arrested by Al-Shabaab,” witness said.

This is the second helicopter attack in 3 weeks in that region. Like in the attack a few weeks ago, the attacking helicopter appears to be using rockets, probably unguided, to attack targets. It sounds like an inexpensive Vietnam war era type operation although if the helicopter is approaching from the sea, the pilots are probably very good at what they do.

Like I said two weeks ago, except to see a lot of this type of 'mysterious' activity in Somalia now that we are seeing suspicious evidence that a US security company has been hired by the TFG. There are two key pieces of information still unknown. First, where are the mercenaries operating from? I think it is from a ship because by operating at sea, al-Shabab can't do anything about it. The second question is whether or not UN/US/EU money to the TFG is paying for the mercenaries.

The answer to that question is almost certainly - yes; and given the situation in Somalia and the problems the African Union has had in dealing with al-Shabab, I think western countries are OK with that.