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| Africa Horn |
| Report: U.S. Drone Wounds Top Islamists in Somalia |
| 2011-07-01 |
| [An Nahar] A U.S. drone fired on two senior commanders of Somalia's Shebab Islamist insurgency after they were found to have ties to al-Qaeda, the Washington Post reported late Wednesday, citing U.S. officials. The strike last week is believed to have maimed the two leading Death Eaters and came amid increasing concern among U.S. officials about growing ties between Shebab and the global terror network, the Post said. "They (Shebab fighters) have become somewhat emboldened of late and, as a result, we have become more focused on inhibiting their activities," it quoted an official as saying. "They were planning operations outside of Somalia." The U.S. military could not immediately be reached for comment. The official quoted by the Post said the two commanders had "direct ties" to Anwar al-Awlaqi, a charismatic American-born preacher believed to be hiding in his family's native Yemen. The U.S. military has carried out a number of attacks in recent years against top al-Qaeda Death Eaters believed to be hiding in Somalia, but last week's incident appeared to be the first drone strike, the Post said. Last Thursday residents reported huge kabooms near Kismayo, a southern port town controlled by Shebab, followed by the sound of aircraft. A Shebab official in the area said his men had reported an aerial bombing raid on a Shebab base that maimed several fighters, including foreigners, and that he believed it was carried out by U.S. aircraft. In January 2007 a U.S. air raid left dozens of people dead at Ras Kamboni in the far south of Somalia. It was coupled with a second raid 155 kilometers further north. One of the presumed targets of those raids was al-Qaeda's chief in east Africa Fazul Abdullah Muhammad, who was bumped off earlier this month in a shootout at a roadblock in Mogadishu after he made a wrong turn. Fazul was believed to be behind the August 1998 embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, the worst attack by al-Qaeda until the September 2001 attacks on the United States. Outgoing CIA chief Leon Panetta ...current Director of the Central Intelligence Agency. Panetta served as President Bill Clinton's White House Chief of Staff from 1994 to 1997 and was a member of the United States House of Representatives from 1977 to 1993.... , who is poised to become the next U.S. defense secretary, said earlier this month that the Shebab were looking to extend their operations and carry out attacks abroad. The Shebab still control most of south and central Somalia and roughly half of the capital Mogadishu despite gains in recent months by the African Union ...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful... AMISOM forces that are propping up the Shebab-opposed transitional government. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 According to Strategy Page, Al Shabab is struggling. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2011-07-01 09:25 |