Logo

American Security Council Foundation

Back to main site

Alan W. Dowd is a Senior Fellow with the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes on the full range of topics relating to national defense, foreign policy and international security. Dowd’s commentaries and essays have appeared in Policy Review, Parameters, Military Officer, The American Legion Magazine, The Journal of Diplomacy and International Relations, The Claremont Review of Books, World Politics Review, The Wall Street Journal Europe, The Jerusalem Post, The Financial Times Deutschland, The Washington Times, The Baltimore Sun, The Washington Examiner, The Detroit News, The Sacramento Bee, The Vancouver Sun, The National Post, The Landing Zone, Current, The World & I, The American Enterprise, Fraser Forum, American Outlook, The American and the online editions of Weekly Standard, National Review and American Interest. Beyond his work in opinion journalism, Dowd has served as an adjunct professor and university lecturer; congressional aide; and administrator, researcher and writer at leading think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, Sagamore Institute and Fraser Institute. An award-winning writer, Dowd has been interviewed by Fox News Channel, Cox News Service, The Washington Times, The National Post, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and numerous radio programs across North America. In addition, his work has been quoted by and/or reprinted in The Guardian, CBS News, BBC News and the Council on Foreign Relations. Dowd holds degrees from Butler University and Indiana University. Follow him at twitter.com/alanwdowd.

ASCF News

Scott Tilley is a Senior Fellow at the American Security Council Foundation, where he writes the “Technical Power” column, focusing on the societal and national security implications of advanced technology in cybersecurity, space, and foreign relations.

He is an emeritus professor at the Florida Institute of Technology. Previously, he was with the University of California, Riverside, Carnegie Mellon University’s Software Engineering Institute, and IBM. His research and teaching were in the areas of computer science, software & systems engineering, educational technology, the design of communication, and business information systems.

He is president and founder of the Center for Technology & Society, president and co-founder of Big Data Florida, past president of INCOSE Space Coast, and a Space Coast Writers’ Guild Fellow.

He has authored over 150 academic papers and has published 28 books (technical and non-technical), most recently Systems Analysis & Design (Cengage, 2020), SPACE (Anthology Alliance, 2019), and Technical Justice (CTS Press, 2019). He wrote the “Technology Today” column for FLORIDA TODAY from 2010 to 2018.

He is a popular public speaker, having delivered numerous keynote presentations and “Tech Talks” for a general audience. Recent examples include the role of big data in the space program, a four-part series on machine learning, and a four-part series on fake news.

He holds a Ph.D. in computer science from the University of Victoria (1995).

Contact him at stilley@cts.today.

Al-Shabab Raids African Union Military Base

Wednesday, May 4, 2022

Categories: ASCF News Terrorism

Comments: 0

Source: https://www.voanews.com/a/al-shabab-raids-african-union-military-base/6555233.html

FILE - African Union peacekeepers stand next to an armored personnel carrier as they provide security for members of the Lower House of Parliament who are meeting to elect a speaker, at the Aden Adde International Airport in Mogadishu, Somalia, April 27, 2022.

Al-Shabab fighters stormed an African Union military base in the village of El-Baraf in Somalia’s Middle Shabelle region early Tuesday, local officials and security sources say.

Officials told VOA Somali that the militants briefly seized the base before withdrawing from it. State media said Burundian solders at the base repulsed the attack.

“The Federal Government of Somalia condemns in the strongest possible terms the heinous attack targeting the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia forward operating base in Elbaraf, Middle Shabelle,” the Somali Ministry of Foreign Affairs posted on its official Facebook page.

“We extend our deepest condolences to the victims of this terrorist attack and their families.”

The Mayor of El-Baraf, Abdullahi Haji Muhumed, said the militants started their attack with two suicide truck bombs. He said the militants then fought their way onto the base.

Al-Shabab claimed the killing of 173 African Union forces. The group also claimed responsibility for capturing AU forces as prisoners-of-war. Both claims could not be independently verified. AU force headquarters and Somali military officials could not be immediately reached for comment.

In an interview with VOA, Muhumed, who was not at the village at the time of the attack, said he was told there were “many deaths” among Burundian forces but could not give an exact figure.

“Fighting like this never happened in this area,” he said. “It was heavy fighting.”

He said two civilians were also killed and more than 10 others injured.

Muhumed confirmed to VOA that al-Shabab militants withdrew from the base. He also reported airstrikes targeting the militants as they left the base but did not say who was responsible for the strikes.

El-Baraf, approximately 150 kilometers north of Mogadishu, is one of the forward operating bases of African Union forces from Burundi.

The incident marked the first major al-Shabab attack on AU forces since the mission changed its name and operational structures last month.

The U.N. Security Council, which authorized the new mission called the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), gives it a mandate to reduce the threat posed by al-Shabab, support the capacity-building of Somali security forces, and conduct a phased handover of security responsibilities to Somalia. The mission has until the end of 2024 to operate in the country.

Comments RSS feed for comments on this page

There are no comments yet. Be the first to add a comment by using the form below.