Last week the United States formally designated the group, known locally as Al-Sunna wa Jama’a, as a global terrorist entity and imposed sanctions on its leader, named by American officials as Abu Yasir Hassan.īut it is unclear how strong the ties are between the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria and this group, as well as some others in Africa. “For this to crop up so quickly is concerning.” Special Operations Forces in Africa, said in a telephone interview from Maputo, Mozambique’s capital. Richard Schmidt, the deputy commander of U.S. “I don’t think anyone saw this coming,” Col. In the past year, militants have captured swaths of territory in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, including a port on the Indian Ocean, and beheaded hundreds of civilians, according to human rights groups. The war in Mozambique is part of an alarming expansion of insurgencies believed to have ties to the Islamic State in several parts of Africa. But it signals the entry of the United States military into a counterinsurgency effort that has been aided so far mainly by South African mercenaries, who have faced accusations of human rights abuses. The American program is modest in size and scope: a dozen Army Green Berets are to train Mozambican marines for the next two months. The insurgency, near some of the world’s biggest gas reserves, has killed at least 2,000 civilians and displaced another 670,000. NAIROBI, Kenya - American Special Forces soldiers began training Mozambican troops this week as part of an effort to repel a spreading insurgency in northeastern Mozambique that American officials say is linked to the Islamic State.
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