Posted on 01/09/2007 8:25:38 PM PST by Valin
WASHINGTON - An Al Qaeda member suspected in the 1998 bombing of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania may have been killed in a weekend air strike in Somalia, a US intelligence official said on Tuesday. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said it was not clear which of three Al Qaeda members wanted in the African attacks was killed in the strike, the first overt US military intervention in Somalia since a disastrous peacekeeping mission ended in 1994. The official said Sunday’s strike was targeted against Al Qaeda’s leadership. “We don’t know which one is the one at the moment,” the official said. “I don’t think we got all three. Of the senior guys, people are looking at one.”
US officials have long sought Al Qaeda suspects Abu Talha al-Sudani of Sudan, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed of Comoros and Kenyan Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan in Somalia. The men were believed to be hiding among Islamist troops fleeing Ethiopian and Somali forces. The Bush administration has accused Sudani and Mohammed of playing a role in the embassy bombings, which killed 224 people. Nabhan is wanted in connection with a 2002 hotel bombing on the Kenyan coast which killed 15 people.
The Pentagon and State Department said the United States hit southern Somalia on Sunday, targeting what it believed to be the “principal” Al Qaeda leadership in the area. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the strike was based on “credible intelligence” but declined to comment on whether it was successful.
Sudani was named in grand jury testimony against Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden as an explosives expert and has been described by US officials as the militant network’s East African boss. Mohammed was indicted in New York for his alleged involvement in the embassy bombings and has a $5 million price on his head.
Trying to flee “Very clearly, the US government has had a concern that there are terrorists and Al Qaeda affiliated terrorists that were in Somalia. We have a great interest in seeing that those individuals not be able to flee to other locations,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. Following the ouster of the Islamists in Mogadishu with the help of Ethiopian forces before the new year, McCormack said Al Qaeda operatives were trying to get out of Somalia.
President George W. Bush has frequently asserted — especially since the Sept. 11 attacks blamed on Al Qaeda — that the United States has the right to hit terrorist targets in other countries. “We’ve made it clear that this is a global war on terror. And this is a reiteration of the fact that people who think that they’re going to try to establish a safe haven for Al Qaeda any place need to realize that we’re going to fight them,” said White House spokesman Tony Snow.
Democrats offered guarded support for the strikes but said they knew little of the details. House of Representatives Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, a Maryland Democrat, noted Somali authorities had said the strikes were done in concert with them. “Right now, my judgment is this was an appropriate action taken in the appropriate way,” Hoyer said. Somali officials said the US air strike killed “many” people. US officials declined to give casualty figures.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana has suggested UN peacekeepers should go to Somalia after a first batch of African Union troops is deployed there following the departure of Ethiopian troops who ousted the Islamists. McCormack said a UN force was one of many ideas being discussed but no conclusions had been reached yet.
The United States and the United Nations failed more than a decade ago to restore order in Somalia, which has been in chaos since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then fought each other.
Here is a neat link. http://www.aircraftphoto.dk/video/ac130WMBB.wmv
Excellent news.
Good post. Hopefully we nailed him.
From the Blogosphere:
Payback. US AC-130 Strikes Al Qaeda in Somalia -- New Attacks Ongoing:
January 8, 2007 5:18 PM
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Tuesday, Jan. 9:
UPDATE: “America’s Boots on the Ground in Somalia:” In an exclusive article for Pajamas Media, Daveed Gartenstein-Ross reports on how the US has covertly aided Ethiopia’s fight against the Islamic Courts Union.
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And this has some good....and funny comments:
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ITV)
UPDATE: “Jamil Hussein reports that 400 people, mostly women, children, and adorable ponies, were killed in the botched attack.” (Ace)
Thanks!
Ethiopian PM: Islamists from Britain, Canada captured, hurt in Somalia
http://www.brooksbulletin.com/news/world_news.asp?itemid=59722
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
PARIS (AP) - Ethiopia's prime minister said in an interview published Tuesday that suspected terrorists from Canada, Britain, Pakistan and elsewhere have been among those taken prisoner or killed in the military operations in Somalia.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi was quoted by French newspaper Le Monde as saying that he didn't know the exact number of prisoners in Somalia "because it changes constantly."
"But many international terrorists are dead in Somalia," Meles was quoted as saying. "Photographs have been taken and passports from different countries have been collected. The Kenyans are holding Eritrean and Canadian passport holders. We have injured people coming from Yemen, Pakistan, Sudan, the United Kingdom."
A spokeswoman at the British Foreign office said it could not confirm reports that British passport holders have been involved in the fighting in Somalia. But she said her government was in touch with Somali and Ethiopian authorities and would continue to look into such reports.
The spokeswoman spoke on condition of anonymity in keeping with Foreign Office policy.
Ethiopia forces invaded Somalia last month to prevent an Islamic movement from ousting the weak, internationally recognized government from its lone stronghold in the west of the country. The U.S. and Ethiopia both accuse the Islamic group of harbouring extremists, among them al-Qaida suspects.
"Officials say the targets were al-Qaeda figures wanted for the bombings of two US embassies in Africa in 1998, killing more than 200 people."
"there were "a lot" of casualties, mostly Islamic fighters."
"United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed concern over the United States air strikes on Somalia, particularly their humanitarian impact"
bttt
"United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has expressed concern over the United States air strikes on Somalia, particularly their humanitarian impact"
"And blah blah blah."
Paul Simon
Any dead moslem is a good moslem...
Tell that to Cpl. Mohammed N. Rahman
http://freerepublic.com/focus/news/1451921/posts
Good 'un.
Goons coming out of all the cracks around the world. Hard to distinguish them from cock rouches. At least this time around one can see a victory for those that are involved in supporting the GWOT. The goons are literally being driven into the sea.
The problem is with this war is this kind of thing doesn't happen very much. The terrorist maybe evil, but they are not stupid. every time they crawl out of the shadows they get smacked down hard. Victories are 10 terrorstists arrested/killed here, an attack stopped there, Amir reports suspicious behavior to the local police...etc. It's the nature of a counter-insurgency war. That's why I object to those who try to compare this war to WWII, two different types of war, and have to be fought in two different ways. And this is by far the harder of the two.
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