US attacks Somali 'militant base'
Posted on 06/01/2007 11:30:48 PM PDT by Wiz
MOGADISHU, Somalia - U.S. warships bombarded a remote, mountainous village where Islamic militants had set up a base, officials in the northern Somali region of Puntland said Saturday.
The attack from a U.S. destroyer took place late Friday, said Muse Gelle, the regional governor. The extremists had arrived Wednesday by speedboat at the port town of Bargal.
Gelle said the area is a dense thicket, making it difficult for security forces from the semiautonomous republic of Puntland to intervene on its own.
A local radio station quoted Puntland's leader, Ade Muse, as saying that his forces had battled with the extremists for hours before the U.S. ships arrived and used their cannons. Muse said five of his troops were wounded, but that he had no information about casualties among the extremists.
CNN International, quoting a
Pentagon official, also reported the U.S. warship's involvement. A Pentagon spokesman told The Associated Press he had no information about the incident.
Somalia's U.N.-backed transitional government was sidelined by a radical Islamic group until Ethiopia's military intervened in December and turned the tide.
Insurgents linked to the Islamic group have vowed to wage an
Iraq-style guerrilla war, saying the government is allowing Ethiopia to occupy the country.
The government claimed victory over the insurgents a few weeks ago after battles in Mogadishu that killed at least 1,670 people and drove a fifth of the city's 2 million residents to flee.
Somalia has not had an effective central government since 1991, when warlords ousted longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another.
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I want pictures!
Just the cannons and the craters please.
Gunboat diplomacy, there just might be something to it after all.
Here we see one of the best reasons why the Iraq War must be won decisively and militarily . It is absolutely critical
that all insurgents everywhere see the total crushing of the prime insurgency that they will otherwise model themselves after. We will do the world a great favor by handing al Qaeda
crushing defeats wherever they pop up ,and smack down all those that support them . That should include Iran and elements in Pakistan.
Take the darn gloves off .
Attacks like this are perfect. It’s just like the old western days with the cowboys and Indians. The locals are always there and when they find bad guys they fight and call in the Calvary.
We come in just in time to save the day and do some nice trash removal.
They may say they want to do things just like in Iraq but the locals are never leaving. The cost to have a few ships and an AC130U in theater is fairly low.
We can do this forever and we should. Some day years from now they might get tired of dieing but we may just have to kill them all.
I prefer Patton’s method of winning their hearts and minds thats being practiced in Somolia, than the version being practiced in Iraq.
US attacks Somali 'militant base'
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