Operations

Inhofe praises Obama decision to send troops to Uganda

Top Republican lawmaker on the Senate Armed Services Committee praised President Obama for deploying 150 more special operators to Uganda to hunt down warlord Joseph Kony. 

“Joseph Kony’s reign of terror has gone on far too long, and we cannot go on another year without bringing him and the [Lord’s Resistance Army] to justice,” said Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) in a statement Monday. 

Inhofe has been a long advocate of stopping Kony, who he said has killed more than 100,000 people, displaced more than a million Africans and abducted tens of thousands of children for his terrorist group Lord’s Resistance Army. 

“I am glad to see the President respond to my requests as well as the requests of many Americans to support those in Africa working to stop Kony and eradicate the LRA,” he said in the statement. 

The administration also sent four V-22 Osprey aircraft, two C-130 transport aircraft, and one KC-135 refueling aircraft, Pentagon Press Secretary Adm. John Kirby told reporters on Monday. 

The 150 special operators augments a mission that Obama first authorized in 2011, when he sent 100 special operators as advisors to local forces hunting down the warlord.