Target of Somalia air strike was one of the FBI's most wanted

US airstrikes in Somalia target embassy bombers
AP
Published: 09 January 2007
Two US airstrikes in Somalia killed large numbers of Islamic extremists, government officials and witnesses said today. The targets were suspects in the bombings of two US embassies in East Africa in 1998.

The attacks, by an AC-130 gunship, came after the terror suspects were spotted hiding on a remote island on the southern tip of Somalia, close to the Kenyan border, Somali officials said. The island and a site 155 miles north were hit.



One US attack took place yesterday afternoon on Badmadow island. The area is known as Ras Kamboni and is suspected to be a terror training base. Ethiopian and Somali troops had over the last days cornered the main Islamic force in Ras Kamboni, with US warships patrolling off shore and the Kenyan military guarding the border to watch for fleeing militants.

Witnesses said at least four civilians were killed in another attack 30 miles east of Afmadow town, including a small boy. The claims could not be independently verified.

"My four-year-old boy was killed in the strike," Mohamed Mahmud Burale told the AP by telephone. "We also heard 14 massive explosions."

The AC-130, a four engine turboprop-driven aircraft, is armed with 40 mm cannon that fire 120 rounds per minute and a 105 mm cannon, normally a field artillery weapon. The plane's latest version, the AC-130U, known as " Spooky," also carries Gatling gun-type 20 mm cannon. The gunships were designed primarily for battlefield use to place saturated fire on massed troops.

"We don't know how many people were killed in the attack but we understand there were a lot of casualties," government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said. "Most were Islamic fighters."





It was the first overt military action by the US in Somalia since the 1990s and the legacy of a botched intervention - known as "Black Hawk Down" - that left 18 US servicemen dead. The US military said today it had sent an aircraft carrier to join three other US warships conducting anti-terror operations off the Somali coast.

US warships have been seeking to capture al-Qaida members thought to be fleeing Somalia after Ethiopia invaded on December 24 in support of the government and have begun flying intelligence-gathering missions over Somalia.

President Abdullahi Yusuf told journalists in the capital, Mogadishu, that the US "has a right to bombard terrorist suspects who attacked its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania." Yesterday, Yusuf had entered the restive capital for the first time since his election.

Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Aideed told The Associated Press the US had " our full support for the attacks."

But others in the capital said the attacks would only increase anti-American sentiment in the largely Muslim country.

"US involvement in the fighting in our country is completely wrong," said Sahro Ahmed, a 37-year-old mother of five.

Already, many people in predominantly Muslim Somalia had resented the presence of troops from neighbouring Ethiopia, which has a large Christian population and has fought two brutal wars with Somalia, most recently in 1977.

Ethiopian forces had invaded Somalia to prevent an Islamic movement from ousting the weak, internationally recognised government from its lone stronghold in the west of the country. The US and Ethiopia both accuse the Islamic group of harbouring extremists, among them al-Qaida suspects.






US officials said after the September 11 attacks that extremists with ties to al-Qaida operated a training camp at Ras Kamboni and al-Qaida members are believed to have visited it. The alleged mastermind of the embassy bombings in East Africa, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, escaped to Ras Kamboni, according to testimony from one of the convicted bombers.

Mohammed is believed to be the leader of the al-Qaida East Africa cell.

Leaders of the Islamic movement have vowed from their hideouts to launch an Iraq-style guerrilla war in Somalia, and al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden's deputy has called on militants to carry out suicide attacks on the Ethiopian troops.

Somalia has not had an effective central government since clan-based warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, sinking the Horn of Africa nation of 7 million people into chaos

This information simply is not credible.

Not to get off topic, but this thought just ran through~
I wonder if Fazul was trained in the same league, manner, as Bin Laden? Therefore, more of a threat due to his knowledge?

How much collateral damage was there? A few hundred kids, women and old men a good price to pay for one man?

"The alleged mastermind..."


when will people learn it's Usama not Osama? it would give more credibility...oh well.

lots of dying going on before and since.

got a link for that or just talkin from you arse

pff.. most wanted in america. it lost all it's appeal now that we know they are a bunch that fucks with us.


Today Fazul, tomoroow Abdul, Yesterday Osama.

WAKE UP !

For that, they had to kill 20 civilians? I thought the GI had such super machos who go alone and kill the person they want? No, I think there are other things behind. But as always we have no news. Anyway, the rumors here in Europe are that dangerous terrorists are hiding there, in Kenya and Tansania/ Uganda.

boy your breath is bad smells like chit

i want to be more correct, its actually usamah

and it you want to use the PROPER grammatical punctuation, it's not osama, or usamah, but BUSH.

If you want to be totally correct, there is no right or wrong spelling for Arabic words translated to English.

or bushamah?

how about islamist fascist


no thats too easy and it gets the USA off the hook


ok then IslaBaushist

I'm impressed!! Wow, the US military can target and bomb alleged 1998 US embassy bombers. Pretty good!! Bet it gets a metion in the SOTU speech.

Why don't you just worry about Canada?

double post

I know Harper's firing of his environment minister should capture my total attention, but jeez, it's so much more interesting when a world power is bombing Somalia. For the good of all people of course.

The US didn't attack "Somalia", they took out a known Al-Qaeda site.

They took out an alleged Al Queda post. If Al Queda was alleged to have a site in the US (and according to FOX they have plenty), would you appreciate it being bombed by England?

We take care of it at home-that is what the FBI, and Homeland Security is for. Somalia can't or won't take care of it.

Yes, we know what a fine job they all did on 9-11.