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May 1st,
2008 - US Military: Al-Qaida in Somalia Head Targeted in US Strike |
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US Military:
Al-Qaida in Somalia Head Targeted in US Strike By Mohamed Olad Hassan Associated Press May 1st, 2008 Mogadishu, Somalia - The
U.S. military killed a man believed to be the head of al-Qaida in Somalia and
10 others in an airstrike overnight, an Islamic insurgent group said
Thursday. The U.S. military confirmed
an attack on a suspected al-Qaida target but did not identify the target. Aden Hashi Ayro was killed
when the airstrike struck his house in the central Somali town of Dusamareeb,
about 300 miles north of Mogadishu, said Sheik Muqtar Robow, a spokesman for
the Islamic al-Shabab militia. Another commander and seven
others were also killed, Robow said. Six more people were wounded, two of
whom later died, said resident Abdullahi Nor. "Our brother martyr
Aden Hashi, has received what he was looking for - death for the sake of
Allah - at the hands of the United States," Robow told The Associated
Press by phone. Capt. Jamie Graybeal, a
spokesman for U.S. Central Command, confirmed there was a U.S. airstrike
early Thursday in the vicinity of Dusamareeb. Another U.S. military
spokesman, Bob Prucha, said the attack was against a "known al-Qaida
target and militia leader in Somalia." Both declined to provide further
details. But another U.S. defense
official confirmed that the military launched a missile strike targeting Ayro
at about 3 a.m. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was
not authorized to speak on the record. The attack comes just before
U.N.-sponsored peace talks are due to begin in Djibouti on May 10. Analysts say the strike is
likely to harden extremists and make it more difficult to appeal to moderate
elements in the Islamist movement, which contains many clan members,
businessmen and members of the Somali Diaspora. Iise Ali Geedi, an analyst
at the Somali University, says the attacks will increase anti-American
sentiment. The attack may also weaken the position of the prime minister, who
wishes to bring more militant elements into the talks against the wishes of
the president. Over the past year, the U.S.
military has attacked several suspected extremists in Somalia, most recently
in March when the U.S. Navy fired at least one missile into a southern Somali
town. Somali government officials
have said Ayro trained in Afghanistan before the Sept. 11, 2001, terror
attacks and is the head of al-Qaida's cell in Somalia. He was a key figure in the
al-Shabab movement, which aims to impose Islamic law and launches daily
attacks on the shaky Somali government and their Ethiopian allies. Ayro also
recently called for attacks on African peacekeepers in Somalia in a recording
on an Islamic Web site. Sheik Muhidin Mohamud Omar,
who Robow described as "a top commander" in the Al-Shabab, was also
killed in Thursday's attack. "We heard a huge
explosion and when we ran out of our house we saw a ball of smoke and flames
coming out of the house where one of the leaders of al-Shabab Aden Hashi Ayro
was staying," said local resident Nur Geele. Another resident, Nur Farah,
said, "the bodies were beyond recognition, some them cut into pieces,
and those wounded have been severely burnt." Al-Shabab is the armed wing
of the Council of Islamic Courts movement. The State Department considers
al-Shabab a terrorist organization. The Council of Islamic
Courts seized control of much of southern Somalia, including the capital,
Mogadishu, in 2006. But troops loyal to the U.N.-backed interim Somali
government and the allied Ethiopian army drove the group from power that December. Ethiopia's archenemy,
Eritrea, has offered assistance to the group, and it is re-emerging. In
recent months it has briefly taken several towns, freeing prisoners and
seizing weapons from government forces. The insurgents usually withdraw after
a few hours but continue to target Ethiopian and Somali forces in an
Iraq-style insurgency. The United States has
repeatedly accused the Islamic group of harboring international terrorists
linked to al-Qaida, which is allegedly responsible for the 1998 bombings of
the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed more than 200 people. Over the past year, the U.S.
military has attacked several suspected extremists in Somalia, most recently
in March, when the U.S. Navy fired at least one missile into a southern town
targeting Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a Kenyan suspected in the embassy bombings. America is concerned Somalia
is a breeding ground for terrorist groups, particularly after the Islamic
militants briefly gained control of the south and Osama bin Laden declared
his support for them. "As I have said before,
we will pursue terrorists worldwide," Defense Department spokesman Bryan
Whitman said in Washington. "The U.S. is committed to identifying,
locating, capturing and if necessary killing terrorist wherever they operate,
train, plan their operations or seek safe harbor." Fighting between government
troops and the insurgents claimed thousands of lives last year and drove
hundreds of thousands from their homes. Associated Press writers
Pauline Jelinek in Washington and Jennifer N. Kay in Miami contributed to
this report. Copyright © 2008 The
Associated Press. External link: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jG7cUMNiE55gJVZnvsAxLR411VGQD90D1ALG0 |