Free Republic

House subcommittee says funding will keep command at current levelJust weeks away from standing up as the Defense Department’s newest combatant command, Africa Command is facing a serious budget shortfall. For fiscal 2009, President Bush had requested $389 million for AFRICOM, which is expected to become fully operational on Oct. 1 at its Stuttgart, Germany, headquarters. But last week, the House Appropriations Subcommittee on defense recommended providing only $80.6 million in funding — 80 percent less than was requested, according to Matthew Mazonkey, communications director for Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., the subcommittee chairman. "The subcommittee has provided $80.6 million to...

...It wasn’t the first time American air or naval forces had attacked enemy positions in Somalia. It was the fourth such attack in 14 months on the lawless West African nation: a result of the increasing expansion of Islamic extremism onto the African continent. Conflicting reports have emerged regarding the operation. What is known is that the attacks were probably made with either surface or submarine-launched cruise missiles. The targeted house was in the town of Dhoobley (Dobley), a few miles from the Kenyan border. The targeted individuals were considered high value, and -- according to one of my sources...

via translation- ALERT - Somalia: US aircraft bombed a city, four civilians killed MOGADISCIO - The United States aircraft bombed during the night from Sunday to Monday a city held by Somali Islamists, near the Kenyan border, killing at least four civilians, it was learned from chiefs.

Earlier this month, by coincidence, as President George W. Bush made the announcement in Washington that the United States Department of Defense would be establishing a unified combatant command for Africa (see my column last week on the new structure, to be known by the acronym AFRICOM), the deputy commander of the U.S. European Command (EUCOM), Army General William E. "Kip" Ward, was sitting down in Dakar, Senegal, with the military chiefs of nine African countries who have been key partners in the effort to prevent the efforts of Islamist militants from turning the their subregion into the next front...