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US warship shells Al-Qaeda targets in
northeastern Somalia
by Mustafa Haji Abdinur
June 2, 2007
MOGADISHU (AFP) - A US warship shelled
suspected Al-Qaeda targets in northeastern Somalia after Islamist fighters
clashed with troops from the country's semi-autonomous region of Puntland,
witnesses and officials said Saturday.
They said a US Navy destroyer fired on several targets overnight where Islamist
militants are believed to have bases in mountainous and remote areas outside the
coastal town of Bargal.
"The US military was targeting the Al-Qaeda hideout. This was aimed at flushing
out all the terrorists," said Mussa Jelle Yusuf, the governor for Barri region.
"Puntland troops are surrounding the Bargal hills and hunting for those Al-Qaeda
elements. They ... will be captured or killed," he added.
Witnesses earlier confirmed the bombardment, but could not say if there had been
any casualties.
"We cannot yet tell you the casualty figures, but what I can confirm is that the
American warship shelled several targets in the surroundings of Bargal" late
Friday, Mohamoud Salah, a resident in the area told AFP by satellite phone.
"The heavy shelling continued about three hours around the coastal area and the
mountainous sites where the Islamists had their trenches," he said.
The CNN television channel reported that the destroyer was targeting a suspected
Al-Qaeda operative believed to have been involved in the 1998 attacks on US
embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people, mostly Africans.
A Puntland military official said the attack came three days after authorities
there reported the entry of Islamist fighters and foreigners of Arab origin into
Bargal, a coastal town about 1,250 kilometres (780 miles) northeast of the
Somali capital Mogadishu.
"Our forces have fought with Islamic fighters, including foreigners linked to
Al-Qaeda," said the official, who requested anonymity.
"After the fighting a US Navy ship shelled three targets on the outskirts of
Bargal in the mountainous area," he said.
"We cannot get information on casualties, but the shelling continued for
hours.... The Puntland troops are still chasing Islamic fighters in the
mountainous area," he added.
On Wednesday, Puntland said its troops had killed at least two foreign fighters
who had sailed into Bargal in two boats accompanied by heavily-armed Somali
gunmen.
"These are Al-Qaeda fugitives who fled from the southern part of Somalia. We do
not know the motive of their arrival here, but it is definitely
terrorism-related," Yusuf said.
Witnesses said the attacked areas were remote and difficult for Puntland ground
troops to access.
A US force called the Combined Joint Task Force/Horn of Africa is permanently
based in Djibouti and patrols the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Aden with the aim
of reducing the threat of terrorism.
Earlier this year, a US aerial gunship bombed positions in southern Somalia
after Ethiopia-backed Somali government forces ousted a powerful Islamist
movement from the country's southern and central regions. Local elders said more
than 100 civilians were killed.
The targets were suspected Al-Qaeda operatives blamed both for the 1998 US
embassy bombings and the 2002 suicide attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in the
Kenyan port of Mombasa that killed 15 people.
Among the so-called "high value" Al-Qaeda militants believed to be in Somalia
are Fazul Abdullah Mohammed from the Comoros, Kenyan Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan and
Sudanese national Abu Taha al-Sudani.
Others are Sheikh Dahir Aweys, the hardline cleric heading Somalia's Islamic
Courts Union and Adan Hashi Ayro, the commander of the Islamists' militia wing,
the Shabaab.
US intelligence says that the movement loyal to Osama bin Laden has stepped up
operations in Somalia, a nation of about 10 million people wracked by
lawlessness since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
Northern Somalia's Puntland and neighbouring Somaliland broke away from Somalia
proper and declared a form of autonomy.
Puntland president Adde Mussa said Al-Qaeda planned attacks in northern Somalia,
which has been spared the recent heavy fighting between Somali government forces
and Islamist and clan insurgents.
--------
U.S. strikes reported on Qaeda suspect in
Somalia
By Abdiqani Hassan
Sat Jun 2, 4:36 AM ET
BOSSASSO, Somalia (Reuters) - A U.S. warship attacked a suspected al Qaeda
target in northern Somalia on Friday, CNN reported, and residents said missiles
pounded hills where foreign jihadists fled after clashing with local forces.
There was no immediate news of casualties from the strike, which unnamed sources
told CNN was the second in six months to target a suspect in the 1998 bombings
of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 240 people.
A Pentagon spokesman declined to comment on the report.
Locals in Barga, a port in Somalia's semi-autonomous Puntland region, said the
missiles appeared to be aimed at a group of Islamists, including foreigners, who
landed by boat in the area on Wednesday and had a gun battle with local police.
"Missiles fired from a ship hit the mountains where the Islamic fighters and
foreigners are hiding," one resident, who asked not to be named, told Reuters by
radio phone on Saturday. "A plane was circling and guiding the ship where to
hit."
He said Puntland forces were also pursuing the group, which one senior local
official said were remnants of an Islamic Courts movement that ruled much of
southern Somalia last year.
Another Barga resident said at least two uniformed U.S. military officers
arrived in the port late on Friday.
"They were driven by Puntland troops and were carrying telecommunications
equipment," he said. "It looks like Puntland gave the Americans permission to
fire at the wanted Islamists."
The United States also launched air strikes in southern Somalia in January aimed
at three top al Qaeda suspects but killed their allies instead, U.S. officials
have said.
SIX TARGETS
Those suspects were wanted for the embassy bombings too, and were attacked near
a coastal village where Islamist leaders fled after being routed from the
capital Mogadishu by the Somali interim government and its Ethiopian military
allies.
The Puntland official said the group headed into the hills behind Barga after
arriving by boat from that southern village, Ras Kamboni. He said it included 13
foreign fighters.
Washington says six al Qaeda operatives or associates are in Somalia, including
alleged embassy bomber Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, and Abu Talha al-Sudani, accused
of orchestrating the 2002 bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya that killed
15.
Others include Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, hardline leader of the ousted Somali
Islamic Courts Council (SICC), and Adan Hashi Ayro, head of the SICC's feared
military wing, the Shabaab.
"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," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman.
"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," he added, when asked to comment on the CNN report.
In Somalia's chaotic capital a district chairman was killed on Friday, the
latest victim of suspected Islamist rebels who have vowed to wage an Iraq-style
insurgency.
In the southern port of Kismayu, police said a local intelligence chief, Maktal
Farah, was also killed on Friday.
"He was shot several times in the head by masked men," said Kismayu police chief
Ibrahim Khalif, who survived an attack himself when gunmen sprayed his car with
bullets on Wednesday.
(Additional reporting by Guled Mohamed in Mogadishu, Sahra Abdi Ahmed in
Kismayu, and Kristin Roberts and Doina Chiacu in Washington)
----------------
U.S. Navy strike reported on Qaeda suspect
in Somalia
Sat Jun 2, 2:59 AM ET
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. military launched a strike against a suspected
al Qaeda target in northern Somalia on Friday, CNN reported.
A U.S. Navy destroyer targeted the suspect from off the coast of the African
nation, the cable news network said, citing unidentified sources.
There was no information about the results of the attack, it said.
The target was a suspect in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and
Tanzania, which killed 240 people, CNN said.
The destroyer's guns appeared to be targeting a single person, perhaps moving in
a convoy, according to the report.
A Pentagon spokesman would not comment on the details of the CNN report.
"We recognize the importance of working closely with allies to seek out,
identify, locate, capture, and if necessary, kill terrorist and those who would
provide them safe haven," said spokesman Bryan Whitman.
"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."
The United States launched air strikes in Somalia in January targeting three top
al Qaeda suspects but killing their allies instead, U.S. officials have said.
Those suspects also were wanted for the embassy bombings.
(Additional reporting by Kristin Roberts)
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