Al-Qaida chief in Somalia dead

**ZECH** · 01-10-2007, 09:25 AM

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070110/ap_on_re_af/somalia

Al-Qaida chief in Somalia may be dead By SALAD DUHUL, Associated Press Writer
2 hours, 34 minutes ago

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A senior al-Qaida suspect wanted for bombing American embassies in East Africa was killed in a U.S. airstrike, a Somali official said Wednesday, a report that if confirmed would mean the end of an eight-year hunt for a top target of Washington's war on terrorism.

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There was no immediate confirmation from the United States. In Washington, an intelligence official said the U.S. killed five to 10 people in an attack on an al-Qaida target in southern Somalia but did not say who was killed. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the operation's sensitivity, said perhaps four or five others were wounded.

The report came as U.S forces apparently launched a third day of airstrikes in southern Somalia. Witnesses said an AC-130 gunship attacked a suspected al-Qaida training camp. At least four separate strikes were reported Wednesday around Ras Kamboni, on the Somali coast and a few miles from the Kenyan border.

In three days of attacks near Afmadow, close to the Kenyan border, 64 civilians had been killed and 100 injured, said elder Haji Farah Qorshel. There was no independent confirmation of his claim.

Also Wednesday, Somalia's deputy prime minister said American troops were needed on the ground to root extremists from his troubled country, and he expected the troops soon. It was the first indication that the U.S. military may expand its campaign.

Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who allegedly planned the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa, was killed in a U.S. airstrike Monday, according to an American intelligence report passed on to the Somali authorities.

"I have received a report from the American side chronicling the targets and list of damage," Abdirizak Hassan, the Somali president's chief of staff, told The Associated Press. "One of the items they were claiming was that Fazul Abdullah Mohammed is dead."

If confirmed, Mohammed's death would be a major victory for the U.S. in its hunt for the 1998 embassy bombers. The strike was part of the first U.S. offensive in the African country since 18 American soldiers were killed there in 1993.

The campaign is aimed at capturing al-Qaida members thought to be fleeing Somalia since the Islamic militia that sheltered them began losing ground to Somali government soldiers backed by Ethiopian troops last month.

The Somali troops and their Ethiopian allies have driven the Islamic movement that had dominated the country for six months out of the capital and toward the Kenyan border.

Hassan said local intelligence reports indicated Abdirahman Janaqow, one of the Islamic militants' deputy leaders, had also been killed.

Fazul, 32, joined al-Qaida in Afghanistan and trained there with Osama bin Laden, according to the transcript of an FBI interrogation of a known associate. He had a $5 million bounty on his head for allegedly planning the 1998 attacks on the U.S. Embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which killed 225 people.

He is also suspected of planning the car bombing of a beach resort in Kenya and the near simultaneous attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner in 2002. Ten Kenyans and three Israelis were killed in the blast at the hotel, 12 miles north of Mombasa. The missiles missed the airliner.

Somalia's Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Aideed said U.S. special forces are needed on the ground as government forces backed by Ethiopia are unable to capture the last remaining hideouts of suspected extremists.

"The only way we are going to kill or capture the surviving al-Qaida terrorists is for U.S. special forces to go in on the ground," Aideed, a former U.S. Marine said. "They have the know-how and the right equipment to capture these people."

"As far as we are aware they are not on the ground yet, but it is only a matter of time," Aideed said.

Defense Department officials, speaking privately Tuesday in Washington because the department was not releasing the information, suggested the military was either planning or considering additional strikes in Somalia.

With a U.S. aircraft carrier off Somalia's coast, commanders can call in strikes. Defense Department officials said that as of Tuesday, three other U.S. warships were conducting anti-terror operations off Somalia's coast.

Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said Tuesday the U.S. military assault had been based on credible intelligence. He would not confirm any details of the strikes, conducted by at least one AC-130 gunship. He would not say if any specific members of al-Qaida had been killed, or address if the operations were continuing.

In the capital of Mogadishu, some said the attacks would increase anti-American sentiment in the largely Muslim country, where people are already upset by the presence of troops from neighboring Ethiopia, which has a large Christian population.

Leaders of Somalia's Islamic movement have vowed from their hideouts to launch an Iraq-style guerrilla war, and bin Laden's deputy has called on militants to carry out suicide attacks on Ethiopian troops.

Police at the Kenyan coastal border town of Kiunga on Monday arrested a wife of Mohammed, with her three children, according to an internal police report seen by the AP.

Somalia has not had an effective central government since clan-based warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other. The interim government was established in 2004.

**DOMS** · 01-10-2007, 09:47 AM

I hope this continues.

**goandykid** · 01-10-2007, 05:03 PM

Good. Strong and fast, then lets get out. Not another Iraq.

**goandykid** · 01-10-2007, 05:05 PM

Hey DOMS, question. You'll like this one, even though it hurts me ethically to say it.

My english teachers husband is a tech in the army, and was on leave last week and came into class to speak about whats going on. (afghanistan)

He talked for 2 hours on how theyr building roads, making irrigation tunnels, spending all this money w/ shcools and fences.

Now, at the risk of sounding like an asshole, when the fuck did that become our responsibility?

**maniclion** · 01-10-2007, 05:11 PM

Not likely to happen, you turn the lights on and the roaches scamper for better, deeper hiding spots than the darkness they'd had for a while....you want to draw out some more you gotta turn the lights off and wait for them to come sneaking back out.....

**Squaggleboggin** · 01-10-2007, 05:15 PM

Originally Posted by goandykid

Hey DOMS, question. You'll like this one, even though it hurts me ethically to say it.

My english teachers husband is a tech in the army, and was on leave last week and came into class to speak about whats going on. (afghanistan)

He talked for 2 hours on how theyr building roads, making irrigation tunnels, spending all this money w/ shcools and fences.

Now, at the risk of sounding like an asshole, when the fuck did that become our responsibility?

I could see this being an option if our country were in tip-top shape, but it's not. I mean, if we had extra money to burn, it might be on someone's priority list. But shouldn't we be helping ourselves first? It's like when a lifeguard brings a victim in. They're supposed to use the victim as a cushion if a wave pushes them towards a pier or something. Why hurt yourself when you're the one on which the other depends?

**goandykid** · 01-10-2007, 05:16 PM

Exactly. Except imagine that saving that drowning person costs billions of dollars, and the lifeguard is alreayd in huge debt.

**ZECH** · 01-10-2007, 05:56 PM

Originally Posted by goandykid

Now, at the risk of sounding like an asshole, when the fuck did that become our responsibility?

We rebuilt Japan. We are trying to rebuild Iraq. That is what we do and will always do.

**DOMS** · 01-10-2007, 07:16 PM

Originally Posted by goandykid

Hey DOMS, question. You'll like this one, even though it hurts me ethically to say it.

My english teachers husband is a tech in the army, and was on leave last week and came into class to speak about whats going on. (afghanistan)

He talked for 2 hours on how theyr building roads, making irrigation tunnels, spending all this money w/ shcools and fences.

Now, at the risk of sounding like an asshole, when the fuck did that become our responsibility?

It never was ours and it shouldn't be.

**DOMS** · 01-10-2007, 07:18 PM

Originally Posted by dg806

We rebuilt Japan. We are trying to rebuild Iraq. That is what we do and will always do.

The Japanese are a great people with a sterling work ethic and civili concious.

The Muslims are just a shit hole people with no civility.

**goandykid** · 01-10-2007, 08:03 PM

I was talking about afghanistan specifically. Less insurgents, the majority of our time and money is going into helpng civilians. I know it shouldnt be, but why the hell is it?

**joesmooth20** · 01-10-2007, 08:06 PM

Originally Posted by DOMS

The Japanese are a great people with a sterling work ethic and civili concious.

The Muslims are just a shit hole people with no civility.

I think the world would be a far better place if there were no Muslims at all.

**goandykid** · 01-10-2007, 08:07 PM

Originally Posted by joesmooth20

I think the world would be a far better place if there were no Muslims at all.

**DOMS** · 01-10-2007, 08:12 PM

Originally Posted by joesmooth20

I think the world would be a far better place if there were no Muslims at all.

**ZECH** · 01-11-2007, 01:42 PM

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070111/...onflict_dc_110

**MCx2** · 01-11-2007, 01:48 PM

America!! Fuck yeah!

**goandykid** · 01-11-2007, 04:29 PM

Can someone please answer my question. When/why/ and how did this become our responsibility?

**maniclion** · 01-11-2007, 04:38 PM

Originally Posted by goandykid

Can someone please answer my question. When/why/ and how did this become our responsibility?

The day Georgie Porgie Puddin' Bush told us that it was going to be our responsibility whether we were with him or against him.....I think it was the day after we accomplished our mission over there, whatever that was I seem to recall something about Weapon's of Mass Deception or something like that......

What I love is in his speech the other day when he said he was sending more troops to Iraq he mentioned something about the polls that say most Americans are against that move and he said he wasn't going to let the opinions of the American People sway his actions......I was shocked, isn't he our representative? Not our dictator....he works for us and in a democracy the people rule right??????

**goandykid** · 01-11-2007, 05:43 PM

But still, this is Afghanistan. We didnt destroy their whole system of government and replace it.

They have their OWN governemtn, with their OWN money. This actually aggravates me, why the fuck are OUR troops, in the middle of a supposed troop shortage, over there overseeing fucking construction and what not?

Afghanistan was supposed to be the war where we didnt get involved socially or w/ the govt, just w/ Al Qaida.

**maniclion** · 01-11-2007, 05:50 PM

Originally Posted by goandykid

But still, this is Afghanistan. We didnt destroy their whole system of government and replace it.

They have their OWN governemtn, with their OWN money. This actually aggravates me, why the fuck are OUR troops, in the middle of a supposed troop shortage, over there overseeing fucking construction and what not?

Afghanistan was supposed to be the war where we didnt get involved socially or w/ the govt, just w/ Al Qaida.

It's called Halliburton, the guys making the decisions about Iraq and Afghanistan and the money trail leading back to themselves......it's what we call War Profiteering

http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/bio.aspx?act=pr

**maniclion** · 01-11-2007, 05:55 PM

And don't forget about that black plague and the pipelines!

**goandykid** · 01-11-2007, 05:58 PM

I know about Halliburton and oil, but whether thats as dramatic as it sounds, w/e.

What I know is socially right, but irks me, is the fact that our troops are building schools, roads, irrigation, etc etc etc etc etc.

I know that morally I should be glad, but what no1 can seem to answer is...how is that our responsibility?

**ZECH** · 01-11-2007, 06:23 PM

Originally Posted by maniclion

http://www.publicintegrity.org/wow/bio.aspx?act=pr

Watchdog=Liberal organization=Useless Information
I'll call you Decker Jr

**DOMS** · 01-11-2007, 06:24 PM

**Prince** · 01-11-2007, 06:30 PM

Originally Posted by joesmooth20

I think the world would be a far better place if there were no Muslims at all.

no religion would be nice too.

**ZECH** · 01-11-2007, 06:51 PM

Originally Posted by DOMS

I think Decker gave Manic all his sources

**DOMS** · 01-11-2007, 06:54 PM

Originally Posted by dg806

I think Decker gave Manic all his sources

And they give us shit for quoting CNN.

**ZECH** · 01-11-2007, 07:02 PM

Originally Posted by DOMS

And they give us shit for quoting CNN.

Thats what makes it fun. We give them shit and they give us shit in return!

**ZECH** · 01-11-2007, 07:04 PM

I know I may come off as an asshole sometime, as I am firm in by beliefs, as I'm sure others are also, but I really like reading and seeing others beliefs even though I may not agree with them. I at least try to keep an open mind.

**DOMS** · 01-11-2007, 07:05 PM

Originally Posted by dg806

Thats what makes it fun. We give them shit and they give us shit in return!

Watchdog makes CNN look fair and balanced.

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