By Mike Pflanz in Nairobi
Last Updated: 7:26pm GMT 09/01/2007


The Pentagon claimed today to have targeted "principal" al-Qa'eda leaders in Somalia after a series of air attacks on villages in the south of the country.


The attacks, which reportedly left over 20 people dead, were America's first intervention in the country since the Black Hawk Down debacle in 1993.

The US attacked two villages in southern Somalia using a Special Forces AC-130 warplane armed with heavy cannons capable of firing more than 1,800 rounds a minute. The Pentagon confirmed it had targeted "principal" al Qaeda leadership in the region using "credible intelligence". But a spokeman would not say whether the attacks had been successful.

One target site, near the coastal region of Ras Kamboni, is believed to be the last stronghold of the once-powerful Islamic Courts Union (ICU). Radicals within the organisation, which has been driven from power by Somalia's transitional government and its Ethiopian allies, were said by Washington to be harbouring three men suspected of masterminding terror attacks linked to al-Qa'eda.

It was unclear whether the casualties from the US attacks included the trio, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan or Abu Taha al-Sudani. All are believed to be behind the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, when more than 250 people were killed after two coordinated truck blasts.

Fazul Mohammed is also suspected of orchestrating a 2002 suicide attack on a Kenyan hotel popular with Israelis, and the failed attempt to down a tourist airliner as it took off from Kenya's coast city, Mombasa, heading for Tel Aviv.

Al-Sudani is said to be al-Qa'eda's pointman in the Horn of Africa.


Unconfirmed reports have indicated that British nationals were among the injured or captured. A report in Le Monde quoted Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian prime minister, as saying that people carrying British, Canadian, Pakistani and Sudanese passports were among the suspected terrorists hit in the US attacks.

Leaders of the ICU, who have disappeared since fleeing Mogadishu on December 28, may be among the dead. The propeller-driven AC-130, the same aircraft used against al-Qa'eda and Taliban forces in Afghanistan, was scrambled from a US airbase in the Red Sea state of Djibouti, north of Somalia.

Helicopter gunships continued to attack the village of Afmadow today after the American attack which reports said left over 20 dead.

It was not clear if Tuesday's attacks were carried out by American forces or by the Somali government's ally Ethiopia. Somalian government officials gave their enthusiastic support to the American intervention.

"The Americans had a right to carry out the air strikes on some al-Qa'eda members," Abdullahi Yusuf, Somalia's president, said in Mogadishu today.

"Those who carried out attacks on the US embassy in Kenya and Tanzania were there, so it was the right thing and the right time to carry out such strikes. The Americans are cracking down on al-Qa'eda terrorists all over the world and this was part of it."

But EU officials criticised the attacks. "Any incident of this kind is not helpful in the long term,'' said Amadeu Altafaj, spokesman for EU development commissioner Louis Michel.

The US Navy Fifth Fleet confirmed today that it had repositioned the USS Dwight D Eisenhower, an aircraft carrier, from the Arabian Sea to join other US warships patrolling the Indian Ocean off Somalia.

Jets from the carrier were today already carrying out reconnaissance missions above Somalia, the US Navy said, adding that the deployment was "in case the situation demands air power".

"If they've managed to kill or capture some of the top East Africa people in al-Qa'eda then it vindicates their actions, and the Ethiopians', and it shows the ICU has been deceiving everyone," said Matt Bryden, senior analyst with the International Crisis Group.

"But if they haven't, then it compounds what has in the past been a strategy of errors, makes the US look like it's been sold a lemon by [Somalia's] transitional federal government."

The remnants of the Islamist forces, who have long denied any link to al-Qa'eda, had fled south and regrouped near the coastal town of Ras Kamboni.

It was that movement away from their former stronghold in Mogadishu which allowed US spy satellites and unmanned drones to track them and pinpoint their position, security sources said.

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"If you're going through hell, keep going". Winston Churchill

As soon as I heard that Ethiopia was attacking the growing Islamic army in Somalia ....This was obvious .

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"If you're going through hell, keep going". Winston Churchill

BYAAAAAAAAAAAAH! You're turn to receive Terrorists (and friends)! Payback, *****!

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We view ourselves on the eve of battle. We are nerved for the contest, and must conquer or perish. It is vain to look for present aid. We must now act or abandon all hope! Rally to the standard, and be no longer the scoff of mercenary tongues! Be men, be free men, that your children may bless their father's name. - Sam Houston

Duty is the most sublime word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less. - Robert E. Lee

Yes, when I saw the building intel for call to jihad, the Ethopians had to act, and they did well.... Kenya had its borders covered and when I heard the AC130s hit the spot, well I left for work with a smile (for once!) on my face!!.... a little bit sadist, but thats a real body blow to such a global organisation....

... heard about the scare in Austin City, Texas, USA, birds falling dead from the sky and faint smell of gas in the air.... anything come from it?.... did they discover cause of death of the birds
??...

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"Barrel High, Powder Dry!"

"Illic est haud effrego ex Veneratio"

well theres still work to be done on the "precision issue". i guess.

Yeh Zidane farted

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Quack quack!

Hey now

Yeah, I have family in Austin. They aren't sure what it is, but they think it may have been poison...

__________________
We view ourselves on the eve of battle. We are nerved for the contest, and must conquer or perish. It is vain to look for present aid. We must now act or abandon all hope! Rally to the standard, and be no longer the scoff of mercenary tongues! Be men, be free men, that your children may bless their father's name. - Sam Houston

Duty is the most sublime word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less. - Robert E. Lee

Any update Z.... I checked normal news channels and there seems to be a black out on it... Keep me updated bro.. thanks....

__________________
"Barrel High, Powder Dry!"

"Illic est haud effrego ex Veneratio"

I will. There's been some segments on the news about it, but I don't live near Austin so I probably won't get all the details on WFAA

Apparently the officials in Austin overreacted. No threat was found. Probably just some kid with a BB gun or somethin...Guess they just got a bit paranoid XD

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We view ourselves on the eve of battle. We are nerved for the contest, and must conquer or perish. It is vain to look for present aid. We must now act or abandon all hope! Rally to the standard, and be no longer the scoff of mercenary tongues! Be men, be free men, that your children may bless their father's name. - Sam Houston

Duty is the most sublime word in our language. Do your duty in all things. You cannot do more. You should never wish to do less. - Robert E. Lee

Ah right, well thats always a danger.... suppose the holes in the birds didnt give it away then....

__________________
"Barrel High, Powder Dry!"

"Illic est haud effrego ex Veneratio"