US launches new ‘air strike’ on Somalia

MOGADISHU – A US Air Force AC-130 gunship has launched a second air strike against suspected al Qaeda operatives in southern Somalia, the Washington Post reported yesterday, citing unidentified US officials.

No confirmation of Monday’s reported attack was immediately available in the region and a Pentagon spokesman declined to comment. The newspaper said there was no information on the results or the specific targets of the strike.An AC-130 gunship two weeks ago attacked what Washington said were al Qaeda agents fleeing with Islamist forces defeated by the Somali government and Ethiopian troops late last month.It was the first overt US action in Somalia since the end of a disastrous peacekeeping mission in 1994.Somali government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said he was not aware of a second US attack.Washington believes Somali Islamists harboured al Qaeda members accused of bombing two US embassies and an Israeli-owned hotel in east Africa.”I am not aware of that,” Dinari told Reuters.”I will look into it and once I get information I will let you know.”Any prolonged US intervention in Somalia would be sure to inflame political passions there and in the Horn of Africa region where Muslims have complained of discrimination against them in the name of the “war on terror”.A freelance Somali journalist said on Sunday he had seen US troops on the ground in south Somalia working with Ethiopian forces hunting fugitive Islamists.Rumours have swirled for days that US personnel were inside Somalia since the Jan.8 strike but there has been no official confirmation of a US ground presence.The Islamists have been pushed into the remote southern tip near Kenya’s border after a lightning December offensive ousted them from Mogadishu and the southern territories they had controlled for six months.Kenya has in custody top Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed.A Kenyan government official said on Wednesday Ahmed would not be deported to Somalia because he would be killed and that he has asked for refuge in Yemen.Yemen’s foreign minister was quoted as saying this month that some Islamist leaders had arrived there.Nampa-ReutersThe newspaper said there was no information on the results or the specific targets of the strike.An AC-130 gunship two weeks ago attacked what Washington said were al Qaeda agents fleeing with Islamist forces defeated by the Somali government and Ethiopian troops late last month.It was the first overt US action in Somalia since the end of a disastrous peacekeeping mission in 1994.Somali government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said he was not aware of a second US attack.Washington believes Somali Islamists harboured al Qaeda members accused of bombing two US embassies and an Israeli-owned hotel in east Africa.”I am not aware of that,” Dinari told Reuters.”I will look into it and once I get information I will let you know.”Any prolonged US intervention in Somalia would be sure to inflame political passions there and in the Horn of Africa region where Muslims have complained of discrimination against them in the name of the “war on terror”.A freelance Somali journalist said on Sunday he had seen US troops on the ground in south Somalia working with Ethiopian forces hunting fugitive Islamists.Rumours have swirled for days that US personnel were inside Somalia since the Jan.8 strike but there has been no official confirmation of a US ground presence.The Islamists have been pushed into the remote southern tip near Kenya’s border after a lightning December offensive ousted them from Mogadishu and the southern territories they had controlled for six months.Kenya has in custody top Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed.A Kenyan government official said on Wednesday Ahmed would not be deported to Somalia because he would be killed and that he has asked for refuge in Yemen.Yemen’s foreign minister was quoted as saying this month that some Islamist leaders had arrived there.Nampa-Reuters