US launches airstrikes in Somalia

[witchcurlgirl]

MOGADISHU, Somalia — The U.S. launched an airstrike Monday on a Somali town held by Islamic extremists to go after a group of terrorist suspects, U.S. defense officials said.
Three missiles hit Dobley, a town four miles from the Kenyan border, destroying a home and seriously injured eight people, police and witnesses said. The remnants of an Islamic force that had once ruled much of southern Somalia took over Dobley last week.
"It was a deliberate, precise strike against a known terrorist and his associates," one U.S. military official said in Washington, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to comment on the record.
He gave few other details, except to say the targets were believed staying in building known to be used regularly by terrorist suspects.
Last year, the U.S. shelled suspected al-Qaida targets in Somalia, using gunfire from a U.S. Navy ship off the shore of the east African nation.
"We woke up with a loud and big bang and when we came out we found our neighbor's house completely obliterated as if no house existed here," a resident of the town, Fatuma Abdullahi, told The Associated Press. "We are taking shelter under trees. Three planes were flying over our heads."
A police officer said the eight wounded were hit by shrapnel. An aid worker in Dobley said up to six people were still trapped in the rubble by midday. It was not clear whether these victims were included in the police officer's tally.
"A minimum of two bombs were dropped," said the aid worker, who asked that his name not be used because he is not authorized to speak to the media. The worker spoke to the AP by telephone. "Between four and six people are in the rubble."
Clan elder Ahmed Nur Dalab said a senior Islamic official, Hassan Turki, was in town Sunday to mediate between his fighters and a militia loyal to the government. Turki's forces took over Dobley last week.
Somalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other.
In early 2007, Somali troops and their Ethiopian allies drove out a radical Islamic group to which Turki is allied that had taken over much of southern Somalia. The Islamic forces have fought to regain power.

US Launches Airstrike in Somalia - Politics on The Huffington Post

[Just Kill Me]

What natural resources does Somalia have??? Must go look it up. They have bananas... OMFG it's just like in South America.

[msdebagain]

i cant wait to hear more on this.

[Grimmlok]

You know, given how incorrect the intelligence community has been on a lot of 'terrorist' stuff, i dont think they should be flinging missiles around at houses.

[Just Kill Me]

No, probably not but it is the US and we can pretty much do anything and no one will do anything about it. Occaisionally a couple of crazy guys will get together and blow something up or fly a plane into a building but that's pretty much it. The UN won't even put us in time out; we're fucking golden!

[Dixie Normos]

^the higher you rise, the greater your fall.

[Just Kill Me]

Yeah, I know! I need to buy my island ASAP!

[tkdgirl]

Originally Posted by Grimmlok

You know, given how incorrect the intelligence community has been on a lot of 'terrorist' stuff, i dont think they should be flinging missiles around at houses.

Kinda like bombing aspirin factories?

[Grimmlok]

Yes, or extraordinarily rendering Canadian citizens to complicit nations or CIA black sites to be tortured for a year. You know, those little oopsies.

[celeb_2006]

Originally Posted by Grimmlok

You know, given how incorrect the intelligence community has been on a lot of 'terrorist' stuff, i dont think they should be flinging missiles around at houses.

Quite frankly this is terrifying. The way things have been f**ked up lately, no one trusts anything the U.S. does anymore. Truly terrifying.

[abbyroadme]

You have got to be kidding me. It is getting more and more embarrassing to be American.

[Grimmlok]

You know, I don't have a problem with terrorist crazies being taken out.. I *would* like to assume that:

1) They ASK the country in question if they can lob missiles around inside its borders, as I'm sure most of the host countries aren't thrilled to have these buttheads operating within them

2) THE INFORMATION IS 100% CORRECT. Not a damn probability that the guy is in a house that would normally be filled with orphans and puppies.

[Just Kill Me]

Don't you know the terrorists wear coats made of live puppies and infants; they're pure evil!!!! I have the most fucked up image in my head of Osama wearing a puppy coat now...

[Grimmlok]

surprise!!!

A US missile strike in Somalia, aimed at a man described by the Pentagon as a "known al-Qa'ida terrorist", succeeded only in hurting six civilians and killing three cows and a calf, the IoS has learned.


At least one Tomahawk missile was believed to have been fired from a US submarine off the Somali coast on Monday. It hit a shack in the small town of Dobley, four miles from the Kenyan border. Dobley is one of several towns and villages in southern Somalia that are now under the administration of Islamists connected to the former Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which briefly controlled most of southern and central Somalia in 2006.

The attack was the fourth known strike by the US inside Somalia since it backed Ethiopia's invasion of the country in December 2006. All have been aimed at men Washington believes to be responsible for terrorist attacks in East Africa. None has been successful.

Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, the target of Monday's attack, is wanted in connection with the 1998 US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, which killed at least 224 people.

He is also believed to be connected to the suicide bombing of a Mombasa hotel in 2002, which killed 13 people, and a failed attack on an Israeli airliner.

America's emphasis on the conflict in Somalia as a third front in the "war on terror" has perturbed aid workers, diplomats and analysts. The US backed an invasion by Ethiopia to oust the UIC and is resisting efforts by Somalia's new Prime Minister, Nur Adde, to make overtures to opposition groups that Washington insists are "terrorists".

The US is planning to designate al Shabbab, the main insurgent movement in Somalia, a terrorist group. Diplomats and analysts agree that the group has links with al-Qa'ida, but say the move would derail any hope of a negotiated solution.

US fails a fourth time to hit al-Qa'ida suspect in Somalia - Africa, World - Independent.co.uk

[Just Kill Me]

Those were terrorists in cow suits. Wasn't fucking with someone's livestock punishable by death back in the day???