U.S. Strikes Suspected Al Qaeda Target in Somalia
By DAVID S. CLOUD
New York Times
WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 — A United States Air Force gunship carried out a strike Sunday night against suspected Al Qaeda operatives in southern Somalia, a senior Pentagon official said tonight.
The attack by an AC-130 gunship, which is operated by Special Forces Command, is believed to have produced multiple casualties, the official said. It was not known tonight whether the casualties included members of an Al Qaeda cell that American officials have long suspected was hiding in Somalia.
Special Forces units operating from an American base in Djibouti are conducting a hunt for al Qaeda operatives who have been forced to flee Mogadishu since Islamic militants were driven from the Somali capital by an Ethiopian military offensive last month.
The American attack was first reported by CBS News.
The Special Forces attack is the first military action in Somalia that Pentagon officials have acknowledged since American troops departed the lawless country in the wake of the infamous “Black Hawk Down” episode in 1993.
American officials have long suspected that a handful of Al Qaeda suspects responsible for the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya have been hiding inside Somalia, a country that has not had a central government since 1991.
The search for the terrorist suspects has driven American policy toward Somalia for several years.
(The rest is here.)
New York Times
WASHINGTON, Jan. 8 — A United States Air Force gunship carried out a strike Sunday night against suspected Al Qaeda operatives in southern Somalia, a senior Pentagon official said tonight.
The attack by an AC-130 gunship, which is operated by Special Forces Command, is believed to have produced multiple casualties, the official said. It was not known tonight whether the casualties included members of an Al Qaeda cell that American officials have long suspected was hiding in Somalia.
Special Forces units operating from an American base in Djibouti are conducting a hunt for al Qaeda operatives who have been forced to flee Mogadishu since Islamic militants were driven from the Somali capital by an Ethiopian military offensive last month.
The American attack was first reported by CBS News.
The Special Forces attack is the first military action in Somalia that Pentagon officials have acknowledged since American troops departed the lawless country in the wake of the infamous “Black Hawk Down” episode in 1993.
American officials have long suspected that a handful of Al Qaeda suspects responsible for the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya have been hiding inside Somalia, a country that has not had a central government since 1991.
The search for the terrorist suspects has driven American policy toward Somalia for several years.
(The rest is here.)
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