Remember the US Special Ops raid where 3 children were killed? It's causing major friction in Somalia...

via Reuters.

A raid involving U.S. troops in Somalia has caused a rift between the precarious U.S.-backed government and a powerful clan that says innocent farmers were massacred, months after President Donald Trump approved stepped-up operations there.

The U.S. Africa command, Africom, has acknowledged that U.S. forces participated in a ground operation in support of Somali troops in the village of Bariire last week, and says it is investigating reports of civilian deaths.

It did not reply to further questions from Reuters about the incident, the second mission in Somalia this year in which it has acknowledged the participation of U.S. ground troops. A Navy Seal was killed in a raid in May.

Last week’s raid took place in an area that had been occupied by al Shabaab Islamist militants but was recaptured by government forces earlier in August.

Residents from the Habar Gidir clan, a powerful group spread across southcentral Somalia, said some villagers had weapons, but only to protect themselves from a rival clan. They said the villagers had nothing to do with militants, who had been driven away before the government forces and U.S. troops launched their raid on Friday.

Story here. 

I thought that the bubbas in SOCOM would understand the people in those far off lands that live under tribal rules.

I was wrong.

Making a guess here but I'm betting SOCOM got fooled.  They probably have a "partner" in the Somali Army that is a member of the rival clan who wanted to get a little blood lust satiated and weaken a competitor so he pushed for the raid.

SOCOM being raid happy bit like a shark on steroids and the rest is history.

We keep getting involved in what was once called civil wars, think that a little "civic action" (ie building roads, schools, hospitals etc..) will win hearts and minds and end up hip deep in quagmires.

Our strategy is wrong.