US troops are quietly helping fight ISIS, al-Qaida in West Africa.

 While the world is focused on the fight against al-Shabaab in Somalia, the U.S. military is working behind the scenes to help partner nations face the growing danger posed by al-Qaida and the Islamic State group in West Africa.

The U.S. military is working behind the scenes to help partner nations in West Africa face the growing danger posed by al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. While most of the world’s attention is on fighting al-Shabaab in Somalia, American service members are doing much more than simply going through training exercises with African allies — they’re operationalizing the lessons learned from Iraq and Afghanistan and applying them to a new fight against terror. One little-noted aspect of the U.S. counter terrorism strategy in Somalia is the wide and deep efforts to build up the capacity of our partner nations — such as Uganda, Kenya, and Ethiopia — to fight al-Shabaab. While the world is focused on fighting al-Shabaab, we’re also training forces that can battle IS and al-Qaida West Africa, which has become a growing threat in the region.