BALEDOGLE MILITARY AIR BASE, Somalia—In about a month’s time, a group of 350 Somali men and women will be sent to fight, and perhaps die, against one of al Qaeda’s wealthiest terror franchises.
The recruits will face an enemy they won’t often be able to see. Hiding in camps deep in the thicket of the Somali bushlands, al-Shabab uses the dense savannah to keep the commandos on the ground guessing before leaping out to ambush and kill them. But the new soldiers graduating from the U.S.-supported training program deep in the desert will face a terror group that’s armed with more than just guerrilla tactics. The fresh troops will face complex improvised explosive devices, 500-pound truck bombs, rocket-propelled grenades, and even human waves of al-Shabab suicide bombers running at them. In spite of the odds, Somalia’s military commanders insist their troops will keep moving forward.
