Al-Qaida chief in Somalia may be dead
quote:Gunships attack suspected al Qaeda fighters in Somalia
By SALAD DUHUL, Associated Press Writer
3:43 pm EST Wed 10 Jan 2007
A senior al-Qaida suspect wanted for bombing American embassies in East Africa was killed in a U.S. airstrike, a Somali official said Wednesday, a report that if confirmed would mean the end of an eight-year hunt for a top target of Washington's war on terrorism.
In Washington, U.S. government officials said they had no reason to believe that the suspect, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, had been killed. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the information's sensitivity.
The report came as U.S forces apparently launched a third day of airstrikes in southern Somalia. At least four separate strikes were reported around Ras Kamboni, on the Somali coast near the Kenyan border. Witnesses said an AC-130 gunship attacked a suspected al-Qaida training camp.
A senior Somali government official also said a small U.S. team has been providing military advice to Ethiopian and government forces on the ground. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
In Washington, a U.S. official said it would be virtually unheard of for the United States to be involved in an operation of this size without "eyes on the ground."
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quote:Recent events fuel Arab ire toward U.S.
POSTED: 1902 GMT (0302 HKT), January 9, 2007
STORY HIGHLIGHTS:
• Witnesses say 31 civilians, including two newlyweds, died in the assault
• Pentagon official says one assault was based on intel al Qaeda was in area
• Somalia's president calls U.S. actions against terrorist suspects justified
• U.S. Embassy in Nairobi reissues terror warning
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Helicopter gunships attacked suspected al Qaeda fighters in the south Tuesday after U.S. forces staged airstrikes in the first offensive in the African country since 18 American soldiers were killed there in 1993, witnesses said.
Witnesses said 31 civilians, including two newlyweds, died in the assault by two helicopters near Afmadow, a town in an area of forested hills close to the Kenyan border 220 miles southwest of Somalia's capital, Mogadishu. The report could not be independently verified.
A Somali Defense Ministry official described the helicopters as American, but the local witnesses told The Associated Press they could not make out identification markings on the craft. Washington officials had no comment.
On Monday, at least one U.S. AC-130 gunship attacked Islamic extremists in Hayi, 30 miles from Afmadow, and on a remote island 155 miles away believed to be an al Qaeda training camp at the southern tip of Somalia next to Kenya. Somali officials said they had reports of many deaths.
A U.S. intelligence official said the U.S. killed five to 10 individuals in this week's attack in southern Somalia. 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, at the targeted area were also wounded.
The U.S. was still trying to figure out who they were -- a process that may require a mix of intelligence and getting personnel to the scene.
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quote:
By SALAH NASRAWI, Associated Press Writer
3:14 pm EST Wed 10 Jan 2007
Saddam Hussein's unruly execution, gunbattles in Iraq and U.S. airstrikes on Somalia are increasing hostility toward America in the Arab world and deepening the Shiite-Sunni divide. The conflicts in Iraq and Somalia are not directly connected, but this week's U.S. strikes in the Horn of Africa country are feeding a fear among Sunni Muslim Arabs that a growing campaign is challenging their historic dominance of the Middle East.
In Somalia, the assault is seen as coming from mainly Christian Ethiopia, whose troops swept in to topple the hard-line Islamic Sunni group that had seized control of much of the country. In Iraq, the threat comes from Shiites, brought to power by the U.S. invasion and backed by Iran.
The Ethiopian invasion, "backed completely by the United States and Israel, ... has led to the occupation of a nation that is a member of the Arab League for more than 30 years, yet no one in the Arab world has moved," columnist Fahmi Huweidi wrote Wednesday in the Arab daily Asharq al-Awsat.
"Anything has become permitted as long as the goal is to strike Islamic radicals, even if it leads to the occupation of an Arab nation and the defiling of its political honor, making it a morsel for the Americans, Ethiopians and Israelis," he said.
The editor in chief of the Islamic Banner, an Egyptian goverment religious newspaper, went further, calling President Bush "Dracula .. thirsty for the blood of Arabs and Muslims."
"He invaded Afghanistan ... then he invaded Iraq. Now I wake up to the news of U.S. forces striking Somalia, killing dozens of Muslims," Mohammed al-Zarqani wrote. "Will Somalia become another Iraq or Afghanistan? The Dracula of the modern age is determined that it will."
Reaction from Arab governments was muted over the American strikes in Somalia this week. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit on Wednesday said "there should be caution in using force against civilians."
Somalia lies on the outer rim of the Arab world, is not connected to the Sunni-Shiite division in the region. But the conflict there adds to the view among some Sunni Arabs that they are under siege — a fear largely fueled by the conflict in Iraq. There has long been a sentiment that the Arab world is flanked by three enemies — Christian Ethiopia from south, Iranian-backed Shiites from the west and Jewish Israel in its midst.
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Faire l'amour, pas la guerre
Make love not war
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