Peacekeeping· Somalia Intervention (Op RESTORE HOPE)
Kismayo Amphibious Op
The operation at Kismayo was an amphibious move to secure the southern Somali port city and its airfield, extending the reach of Operation Restore Hope to one of the country's key coastal centers far south of Mogadishu.
The Marines used their amphibious capability to land and secure Kismayo, opening another port and airfield through which relief supplies could flow and establishing control over an important town in the south. Securing Kismayo was part of the broad effort to spread the intervention across the relief sectors of southern Somalia, the Marines projecting force from the sea to take the coastal objectives that anchored the humanitarian mission. The operation met little organized resistance, the Marines establishing their presence and opening the port for the relief effort. Kismayo was one of the southern objectives that rounded out the Marine intervention, a demonstration of the amphibious reach that allowed the Corps to secure widely separated points along the Somali coast in support of the relief mission.
Record no. 821