[Peace-discuss] [Fwd: ICH: U.S. Death Squads Roam The Globe]

[C. G. Estabrook]

[From the Kennedy administration (who innovated death squads in Latin America) 
to the Obama administration (who put McChrystal, a death squad assassin, in 
charge of 'protecting civilians' in AfPak), this has been the favored American 
mode of politics around the world. --CGE]

	Commando Raid in Somalia is Latest in
	Covert Operations Across the Globe
	By Bill Roggio

September 17, 2009 "Long War Journal' -- Yesterday's daring raid in southern 
Somalia that targeted and killed a senior al Qaeda leader wanted for several 
deadly attacks is the latest in a series of covert operations carried out by US 
and allied special operations. At least four other high-profile raids by ground 
forces took place in Pakistan, Madagascar, and Syria over the past several 
years, while others have gone unreported, according to US officials.

The successful Somali raid targeted Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a senior al Qaeda 
leader in East Africa as well as a senior leader in Shabaab, al Qaeda's 
surrogate in Somalia. Nabhan is thought to train terrorists in Somalia and has 
been at the forefront in cementing ties between Shabaab and al Qaeda. He has 
been wanted for his involvement in the 1998 suicide attacks against US embassies 
in Kenya and Tanzania, as well as leading the cell behind the 2002 terror 
attacks in Mombasa, Kenya, against a hotel and an airliner.

Reports of the operation are still unclear as the US military has refused to 
comment. But various press accounts from eyewitnesses and unnamed intelligence 
sources provide a glimpse of the operation.

The operation, dubbed Celestial Balance, was approved 11 days ago after US 
intelligence determined that Nabhan was shuttling back and forth between the 
Shabaab-controlled port cities of Merka and Kismayo. A car transporting Nabhan 
and five other foreign fighters was escorted by another car carrying three 
Shabaab escorts; the vehicles were hit as they stopped for breakfast as they 
traveled to Kismayo.

According to one witness, upwards of six helicopters were involved in the raid. 
At least two AH-6 Little Bird special operations attack helicopters strafed the 
two-car convoy. Other helicopters dismounted Navy SEALs, who seized the body of 
Nabhan and another, and purportedly took two other wounded fighters captive. An 
unconfirmed report indicated that Sheikh Hussein Ali Fidow, a senior Shabaab 
leader, was among those killed. All nine al Qaeda and Shabaab leaders and 
fighters were killed during the operation.

Somali raid similar to covert raids in Pakistan, Madagascar, and Syria

While yesterday's raid in Somalia is being hailed as a shift in the US war to 
target al Qaeda's leadership, as opposed to the unmanned airstrikes against the 
Taliban and al Qaeda in Pakistan's tribal areas as well as attacks in Somalia 
and Yemen, in fact the US has previously pulled the trigger on other direct 
action missions - operations involving troops entering enemy territory.

Four such direct action missions against wanted al Qaeda leaders have been 
carried out in the Middle East and in Africa over the past several years.

The largest such raid took place in March 2006 against a training camp in Danda 
Saidgai in the Taliban-controlled tribal agency of North Waziristan, Pakistan. 
US special operation teams raided an al Qaeda camp run by the Black Guard, the 
elite Praetorian Guard for Osama bin Laden, Ayman al Zawahiri, and other senior 
al Qaeda leaders.

The air assault resulted in the death of Imam Asad and several dozen members of 
the Black Guard. In addition to being the camp commander, Asad was a senior 
Chechen al Qaeda commander and an associate of Shamil Basayev, the Chechen al 
Qaeda leader killed by Russian security forces in July 2006. US intelligence 
believed either Zawahiri or bin Laden were at the camp at the time of the raid.

The next high-profile raid took place in the least likely of places, on the 
island nation of Madagascar. In January 2007, US commandos struck at Mohammed 
Jamal Khalifa, one of Osama bin Laden's brother-in-laws with deep roots in al 
Qaeda as a financier and facilitator, as he visited his home there.

US intelligence had waited for Khalifa to leave the safety of Saudi Arabia and 
targeted him when he was most vulnerable, US intelligence officials have told 
The Long War Journal. The raid was made to look like a robbery; Khalifa's 
computer and other documents were stolen.

The next US commando raid again took place in Pakistan in September 2008, when 
US special operations forces assaulted the village of Musa Nikow in Pakistan's 
Taliban-controlled tribal agency of South Waziristan. The raid was 
controversial; Pakistani authorities claimed that civilians were killed during 
the raid. The target of the raid is unclear, and no senior al Qaeda or Taliban 
leader was reported killed or captured.

The last known direct action mission targeted and killed a senior al Qaeda 
leader based in eastern Syria. In October 2008, US commandos assaulted a 
compound in the town of Sukkariya near Abu Kamal, across the border from Al 
Qaeda in Iraq, and killed Abu Ghadiya and several members of his staff.

Ghadiya was the leader of al Qaeda's extensive network that funnels suicide 
bombers, foreign fighters, weapons, and cash from Syria into Iraq along the 
entire length of the Syrian border.

Other such direct action missions have taken place but have avoided the scrutiny 
of the media, US intelligence officials told The Long War Journal.

http://www.longwarjournal.org/archives/2009/09/commando_raid_in_som.php