[Peace-discuss] US bombards Somali village

[Ricky Baldwin]

War without borders .....

"This is a global war on terror and the U.S. remains
committed to reducing terrorist capabilities when and
where we find them."

And you gotta love the way stories like this explain
why these people deserved to die: "extremists",
"Islamic militants" ... what more could any reasonable
person want to know?

-Ricky

Report: U.S. hits militants' Somali base
 
By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN, Associated Press Writer 6-2-07
 
At least one U.S. warship bombarded a remote,
mountainous village in Somalia where Islamic militants
had set up a base, officials in the northern region of
Puntland said Saturday.

The attack from a U.S. destroyer took place late
Friday, said Muse Gelle, the regional governor. The
extremists had arrived Wednesday by speedboat at the
port town of Bargal.

Gelle said the area is a dense thicket, making it
difficult for security forces from the semiautonomous
republic of Puntland to intervene on their own.

A local radio station quoted Puntland's leader, Ade
Muse, as saying that his forces had battled with the
extremists for hours before U.S. ships arrived and
used their cannons. Muse said five of his troops were
wounded, but that he had no information about
casualties among the extremists.

A task force of coalition ships, called CTF-150, is
permanently based in the northern Indian Ocean and
patrols the Somali coast in hopes of intercepting
international terrorists. U.S. destroyers are normally
assigned to the task force and patrol in pairs.

CNN International, quoting a Pentagon official, also
reported the U.S. warship's involvement. A Pentagon
spokesman told The Associated Press he had no
information about the incident.

"This is a global war on terror and the U.S. remains
committed to reducing terrorist capabilities when and
where we find them," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman
said.

"We recognize the importance of working closely with
allies to seek out, identify, locate, capture, and if
necessary, kill terrorists and those who would provide
them safe haven," Whitman said. "The very nature of
some of our operations, as well as the success of
those operations is often predicated on our ability to
work quietly with our partners and allies."

At an international conference in Singapore, U.S.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters who
asked about the Somalia reports on Saturday, "Frankly,
I don't know exactly what was going on. I've been on
the road. And I wouldn't be commenting on operational
activities anyway."

Puntland's minister of information, Mohamed
Abdulrahman Banga, told the AP that the extremists
arrived heavily armed in two fishing boats from
southern Somalia, which they controlled for six months
last year before being routed by Ethiopian troops sent
to prop up a faltering Somali government.

"They had their own small boats and guns. We do not
know exactly where they came from — maybe from Ras
Kamboni, where they were cornered in January," he
said.
Local fishermen, contacted by telephone, said about a
dozen fighters arrived Wednesday, but Puntland
officials said the number could be as high as 35.

The United States has repeatedly accused Somalia's
Council of Islamic Courts of harboring international
terrorists linked to al-Qaida and allegedly
responsible for the 1998 bombings of the U.S.
Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The U.S. sent a small number of special operations
troops with the Ethiopian forces that drove the
Islamic forces into hiding. U.S. warplanes have
carried out at least two airstrikes in an attempt to
kill suspected al-Qaida members, Pentagon officials
have said.

In Mogadishu, unknown gunmen killed a government
official, Hassan Ali Sa'id, in the capital's southern
neighborhood late Saturday as he was about to enter
his house. Sa'id was district commissioner of the
Howlwadaag area.

"We heard two shots and we came out and we saw our
neighbor lying in the street and a car disappearing,"
said Sa'id Ahmed Yonis.

Sa'id is the second district commissioner killed in
Mogadishu in the past month.
__ 
Associated Press writer Robert Burns in Singapore
contributed to this report.




       
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