Via NY Post:
WASHINGTON — US military advisers have secretly operated in Somalia since around 2007 and Washington plans to deepen its security assistance to help the country fend off threats from the Islamist militant group al Shabaab, US officials said.
The comments are the first detailed public acknowledgment of a US military presence in Somalia dating back to the administration of President George W. Bush and add to other signs of a deepening US commitment to Somalia’s government, which the Obama administration recognized last year.
The deployments, consisting of up to 120 troops on the ground, go beyond the Pentagon’s January announcement that it had sent a handful of advisers in October. That was seen at the time as the first assignment of US troops to Somalia since 1993, when two US helicopters were shot down and 18 American troops killed in the “Black Hawk Down” disaster.