Posted on 01/12/2007 5:20:12 PM PST by Lorianne
BEIJING, (Xinhuanet) -- None of the top three al-Qaeda members in Somalia were killed in a U.S. airstrike this week, a senior U.S. official in the region said Thursday.
A day earlier, a Somali official had said a U.S. intelligence report had referred to the death of Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, one of the three senior al-Qaeda members believed responsible for bombing U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998.
But U.S. and Ethiopian troops in southern Somalia were still pursuing the three, the U.S. official said.
The United States launched a fresh airstrike with at least two helicopters and killed eight militants on Tuesday in southern Somalia where it struck against targets suspected of al-Qaeda operations a day earlier.
The Somali transitional government announced that U.S. AC-130 gunship, operated by the Special Operations Command, flew Monday from its base in Djibouti to the southern tip of Somalia, where the al-Qaeda suspects were believed to have fled from the Somali capital of Mogadishu.
"We can confirm that U.S. gunships raided targets in a village in southern Somalia late on Monday," government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said by telephone from Baidoa where the government is based.
"The target was a small village called Badel. And the gunships did hit the exact target so the operation was successful," Dinari said.
The United States has long said al-Qaeda suspects, who were linked to the U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa, took refuge in Somalia.
BINGO! More... AIRSTRIKES!
Ah geeze. Another round of "they got 'im ... uh, wait a minute ..." How many times did we "get" Saddam and Zarqawi?
Has this strike been confirmed?
You realize that since we "missed them", we have to continue airstrikes on suspected hideouts in the area, right? Why, it could take years. (wink, wink)
Last Somali Islamist base 'falls'
***********************EXCERPT ********************
"Government troops and Ethiopian forces have captured Ras Kamboni after heavy fighting," the defence minister told the Associated Press news agency.
"They're not dead, they're pinin for the fjords!"
Tropical paradise caught in the crossfire of the war on al-Qaeda
MUSLIM NEWS
via BEIJING(XINHAUNET)
Pardon me while I take this "news" with a grain of salt...
Is the 'Muslim News' a subsidiary of the 'Weekly World News' ?
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