US confirms Somali missile strike

US confirms Somali missile strike

news.bbc.co.uk

The US military has confirmed that it carried out a pre-dawn missile strike which killed a senior leader of an Islamist militant group in Somalia.

A spokesman said the target of the attack in the town of Dusamareb was an al-Qaeda leader, but would not name him or say whether it had been successful.

The strike hit the home of Aden Hashi Ayro, the military head of al-Shabab, which controls much of Somalia.

At least 10 other people, including another al-Shabab leader, also died.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This area of Africa has a personal bit of connection for me from many years ago.

I think that if they had no prior reason this will serve to incite retaliation attacks on US interests in this region and others.

While I am not familiar with the details of the current events, I feel if the US did not want the world to know who was responisible for this attack, it could have been carried out covertly.

It will be interesting to watch the spin on this.

news.bbc.co.uk
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by kerontehe


Doubt it. People can easily tell who fired the missile in Somalia especially when its an Al Qaeda leader. Who else be gunning for Al Qaeda in Somalia? The Mossad?

If you hear missile strike in Gaza or Westbank, thats Mossad. In Somalia it be the U.S.

Here are some current background reports on this area also from the BBC:

Clan divisions behind Somali violence

news.bbc.co.uk...

Somalia: Who supports who?

news.bbc.co.uk...

Timeline: Ethiopia and Somalia

news.bbc.co.uk...

Anyone that has current local input please bring me up to date. I made many friends in this area when I was their in the 80's.

reply to post by deltaboy


Thanks DB.

I meant it could have effected by somes other than a missle strike if the US wished to remain covert.

I was thinking more along the lines of trying to emulate the Sayeret Matkal. Don't think the US has ever had a team that good though.

reply to post by kerontehe


Its just political. Remember Black Hawk Down? We are still sensitive to casualties. Why send troops in when a missile can do the same job. However good an antiterrorism unit be they can still bleed and die.

A spokesman said the target of the attack in the town of Dusamareb was an al-Qaeda leader, but would not name him or say whether it had been successful.

There's all the "prior reason" we needed to carry out this operation.

now i`ve heard it all

al-qaeda in somalia

don`t make me laugh

didn`t they learn the first time in Mogadishu about these people? at least the somali`s let the red cross in to see the captured US forces - the same can`t be said about the captured somali troops.

this is a power play - the ICU has evidence that the US has broken , piecemeal , a UN arms embargo and is supplying the warlords (ARPCT)who started the civil war in 2006

www.guardian.co.uk...

this is nothing more than US playing games and silencing critics.

Sorry I was gone for a while. I'm so old my stuff I did on thus this conintinenent no longer even matterers.

I don't even know if my old friends are even still alive.

Please some of you younger guys bring me up to date.

I'm out.

kerontehe, sneaky pete - out..

reply to post by Harlequin


Where do you think the Somali fighters came up with the trick of modifying the fuses on RPGs to take out helicopters? That was a trick of Al Qaeda during the fighting against the Soviets in Afghanistan. It also kept anyone from recovering the warhead and using the explosives against them. They also showed them several other modifications to the RPG that they had been using.

Somalia is the perfect place for them to set up a safe haven BECAUSE it's got all the fighting going on there.

RPG-7s were widely used against the multinational forces in Somalia in 1993, including in an anti-helicopter role. While local warlords were actively seeking man-portable surface- to-air missiles (SAMs) to use against the coalition, no SAMs were actually used against the coalition forces. The use of RPG-7s in an anti-helicopter role probably resulted from training by Al Qaeda operatives, who would have picked up the concept during their battles with Soviet forces in Afghanistan. This Al Qaeda training led to three distinct and identifiable “signatures” that should be watched for should this tactic be employed against the U.S.-led forces in Iraq.

Volley fire: While we do not know whether RPG-7s were used because of the unavailability of SAMs or because the Al Qaeda operatives believed the poorly trained local forces would do better with the RPG-7, we do know that the volley fire of large numbers of RPG-7s against low-flying helicopters was effective. It downed three helicopters and seriously damaged several others.

Fuse cutting of RPG-7 warheads: We received numerous reports on this modification, and I believe I personally witnessed the tactic in action against one of the early Task Force Ranger raids. More than half a dozen RPG-7s were fired at low-flying helicopters in this instance, all of which appeared to have detonated early and while the projectile was still on an upward trajectory. As we understood the procedure, the fuse leading from the rocket body to the warhead was shortened. In normal use, when the RPG-7 rocket exhausts it fuel, it also ignites a length-of-time fuse that burns down and then detonates the rocket warhead. This prevents a warhead that misses its target and fails to detonate from being recovered by opposing forces and its explosives employed against the original user. The Al Qaeda technique was to shorten the warhead’s time fuse, resulting in the warhead’s detonating much earlier. This in effect made the RPG-7 an air-bursting weapon. This may be a unique signature of Al Qaeda training.

www.fpri.org...


[edit on 5/2/2008 by Zaphod58]

reply to post by Zaphod58


erm , just to correct you somewhat it was the mujahideen who fought the russians in 1979-1989 and nothing to to do with al-qeada

unless history books have allready been re-written since the term Al Qaeda didn`t come into being till after 9/11

And who formed Al Qaeda? The same people that were fighting the Soviets in Afghanistan. Yes, I realize the Mujahideen were fighting the Soviets, but those same fighters (some of them anyway) went on to form Al Qaeda and used that same training and tactics later.

And actually there were several references to Al Qaeda found BEFORE 9/11. I've seen several articles linked here that had the name mentioned at least a year before the attacks. Or were those rewritten later to change it to look like Al Qaeda was active then?

[edit on 5/2/2008 by Zaphod58]

Al Qaeda is an american term , they didn`t call themselves that untill after several of the video`s to the west and only after 9/11 - so whilst they might be the same people , until this century they were the mujahideen.


but thats an aside since the person the US blew up was an ICU militia commander who until recently was openly fighting the Ethopians and the ARPCT , they pushed them back and recovered amounts of US serial`d M16`s and other weapons - so just as in Iraq the us are showing iranian made weapons being used, US weapons are being supplied and used in Somalia.

nothing to do with Al-Qeada , its about the US being caught illegally supplying weapons.

Thanks guys.

This is not just a points bump - don't care.

I hope I am not the only one left with friends in this area.

Retired not by my choice now.

Just trying to stay current.

I also doubt that most americans will even ever hear about this. None of the big media outlets are covering it but that's not surprising I guess.

Here is a USA MSM coverage:www.usatoday.com...

U.S. denies report of Somalia airstrike

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) — Islamic fighters say an overnight U.S. airstrike blasted a remote area of central Somalia hours after armed civilians met there, but no one was hurt. The U.S. military denies the report.

Is anyone else paying attention to these contradictions?

This is in direct contradiction to the BBC report from my OP on 5/1/08.



[edit on 5/6/2008 by kerontehe]