Die NYT vom 02.03.2019 berichtet über die Stationierung von ca. 150 US-Amerikanern als Trainer und Berater der Tunesischen Armee.
[…] The deepening American involvement in an array of secret missions goes largely unreported because of Tunisian and American concerns that publicizing this could attract even more extremist violence. There is also a strong aversion across the political spectrum in North Africa to Western intervention in the region.
Still the growing cooperation is notable because it comes at a time when the Pentagon is reducing its presence elsewhere on the continent, especially in West Africa, as the military shifts to focus more attention on challenges elsewhere from Russia and China.
“Tunisia is one of our most capable and willing partners,” Gen. Thomas D. Waldhauser, the head of the Pentagon’s Africa Command, told Congress in February. […]
Unarmed American surveillance drones fly reconnaissance missions from Tunisia’s main air base outside Bizerte, the northernmost city in Africa, hunting terrorists who might be seeking to infiltrate through the country’s border with Libya and other areas, American military officials said.
The United States had sought permission to fly from bases farther south, where weather conditions are better. But the Tunisians wanted the American presence to be more concealed, officials said.
There are other signs of Washington’s increasing security cooperation with Tunisia. Body armor, rifles and night-vision goggles; reconnaissance aircraft and fast patrol boats; radios and devices to counter improvised explosives: The value of American military supplies delivered to the country increased to $119 million in 2017 from $12 million in 2012, government data show.