| Author |
Message |
    
crosswize
New member
Username: crosswize
Post Number: 7
Registered: 1-2007
Posted From: 70.113.57.158
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 09, 2007 - 10:34 pm: | 
|
U.S. Gunships Target Al-Qaida In Somalia
POSTED: 6:24 pm MST January 8, 2007
UPDATED: 4:48 pm MST January 9, 2007
WASHINGTON -- A new front may be opening in the war on terrorism, as U.S. gunships strafed suspected al-Qaida fighters in southern Somalia on Tuesday, witnesses said.
About Somalia: CIA Factbook
The strike follows two days of attacks by U.S. forces -- the first U.S. offensives in the African country since 18 American soldiers were killed here in 1993.
In Washington, a U.S. intelligence official said American forces killed five to 10 people in an attack on one target in southern Somalia believed to be associated with al-Qaida. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the operation's sensitivity, said a small number of others present, perhaps four or five, were wounded.
A Somali lawmaker said 31 civilians, including a newlywed couple, died in Tuesday's assault by two helicopters near Afmadow, a town in a forested area close to the Kenyan border. The report could not be independently verified.
A Somali Defense Ministry official described the helicopters as American, but witnesses told The Associated Press they could not make out identification markings on the craft. Washington officials had no comment on the helicopter strike.
The U.S. is hunting down Islamic extremists, said the Somali defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.
Somalia's president said the United States has the right to carry out airstrikes against al-Qaida suspects in his country.
Officials said the targets were al-Qaida figures wanted for the bombings of two U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, which killed more than 200 people.
In a statement Tuesday, the U.S. military said more U.S. ships are moving into the waters off Somalia to reinforce the military effort there. The U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet has dispatched the aircraft carrier Dwight D. Eisenhower to join four other U.S. ships in the region.
"Due to rapidly developing events in Somalia, U.S. Central Command has tasked USS Dwight D. Eisenhower to join USS Bunker Hill, USS Ramage, USS Anzio and USS Ashland to support ongoing maritime security operations off the coast of Somalia," said Navy spokesman Lt. Cmdr. Charlie Brown.
The U.S. Department of Defense said that the Ethiopian military entered Somalia Dec. 24 with the mission of neutralizing the Council of Islamic Courts. That military said that is a Muslim extremist group that took power in the Somali capital of Mogadishu. The Ethiopian forces took the capital in 10 days and the suspected terrorists allegedly moved south toward the border with Kenya to escape.
Al-Qaida has used Africa as a base and target for its operations since its early days. Osama bin Laden, who masterminded the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, moved to Sudan in 1991 and established training camps and business structures there.
After U.S. troops moved into Somalia in 1992, bin Laden and other al-Qaida leaders established a Nairobi, Kenya, cell that provided weapons and support to Somali warlords opposing the U.S. forces there. The Sept. 11 Commission said that al-Qaida trainers were later heard boasting that their role in Somalia led to the shoot down of two Blackhawk helicopters in 1993, which led to the U.S. withdrawal from Somalia in 1994.
In 1998, al-Qaida launched the coordinated attack on U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, that killed 225 people, mostly Africans. |
crosswize
New member
Username: crosswize
Post Number: 8
Registered: 1-2007
Posted From: 70.113.57.158
| | Posted on Tuesday, January 09, 2007 - 10:50 pm: |
|
I guess he is going to stretch our Military so thin we will have to call in foreign troops to come protect the US. Making room for the UN to take over the US. We've had suspicious gas leaks in New York and on the same day in New Mexico, same type of leaks. We have a Miami scare scam and a Houston scare scam. It is time for the Patriot act to be re-enstated in March so the underground government can keep us under their control. I don't get it. How did we become such cowards. Our children are not cowards. We just let them send our children away to a war that is about CEO blood money. Chaney and Bush blood money. I heard a senator saying this morning on Cspan.
"Who is he listening too? It isn't the Generals, nor is it the Iraq study group. It isn't the Democratic congress." No!.... it is Chaney, Rothchild, and Rockfeller. The big war investors. The Blood Money Boys! |
|