US bombs Islamist town in Somalia

[Dartzap]

beeb

US bombs Islamist town in Somalia
The US was behind an airstrike on an Islamist-held town in southern Somalia, says a senior official in Washington.

Three missiles hit Dhoble town early on Monday, reportedly killing six people and wounding 20.

A US military official in Washington told Associated Press it had been "a deliberate, precise strike against a known terrorist and his associates".

Islamist insurgents seized the town last week and reports said a leader, Hassan Turki, had been in the area.

The US bombed the area a year ago and residents said it was the same plane.

"We woke up with a loud and big bang and when we came out we found our neighbour's house completely obliterated as if no house existed here," local resident Fatuma Abdullahi told the BBC.

'Hideouts'

The US anti-terror task force - based in neighbouring Djibouti - said it could not comment on the incident.

But at least one unnamed senior US military official confirmed that it was an American operation against "terrorists".

Islamist spokesman Sheikh Mukhtar Robow said the US was trying to hit Islamist hideouts in the area.

"The Americans bombed the town and hit civilian targets, thinking that they were Islamist hideouts. They used an AC-130 plane," he told the AFP news agency.

Another resident of the town told the BBC: "Right now - in full daylight - the planes keep flying over us. They are so low that we're deafened by their engines," she said.

"We are poor civilians living in a simple town - what have we done to deserve this bombing?"

Local official Ali Hussein told the BBC that many people were fleeing the town.

Regrouping

The border with Kenya has been closed for the past year.

There have been reports that the Islamists have been regrouping in the area around Dhoble in recent weeks.

They were ousted from the capital, Mogadishu in December 2006 by government forces, backed up by Ethiopia, with some intelligence from the US.

Dhoble was the last town they held.

The US accused the Somali Islamists of harbouring those responsible for the 1998 attacks on its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The Islamists denied this, as well as reports they had links to al-Qaeda.

Somalia has not had an effective national government since 1991.

Last month, a senior UN official told the BBC that Somalia was the worst place in the world for children.

If you can't find the needle first time round, blow up the haystack at the next opportunity! Brilliant

[Shogoki]

If they run they are terrorists, if they don't run they are well trained terrorists.

[Uraniun235]

Is "Islamist" a reference to a specific organization?

[Oni Koneko Damien]

Is "Islamist" a reference to a specific organization?

It's a shot in the dark, but I'm guessing it generally refers to "Brown people who worship a different god than us and have the gall to claim that we're not the greatest thing in the world."

[Pablo Sanchez]

Shogoki, come up with something substantive to say or stay the hell out.

Is "Islamist" a reference to a specific organization?

It almost certainly refers to the Islamic Courts Union, which is a group out of southern Somalia led by radical Muslim clerics who were using military force to impose islamic religious law over Somalia, bit by bit. They came to international prominence a few months ago when they captured the nominal capital, Mogadishu, but the Ethiopian army came down and ejected them back into the countryside.

The article does several interesting things, like refusing to call the ICU by name and stating that "government forces" recaptured Mogadishu with Ethiopian backing, even though it was pretty much an Ethiopian show.

[Pablo Sanchez]

It's a shot in the dark, but I'm guessing it generally refers to "Brown people who worship a different god than us and have the gall to claim that we're not the greatest thing in the world."

Yeah, I sort of think that in this case it isn't quite fair to accuse the BBC of institutional racism, pro-Christian and pro-American bias, given that they're applying the Islamist lable to Islamic Courts Union, a group that happens to describe itself as Islamist.

But then I guess it's a lot easier to post some glib cynical bullshit, than to be familiar with the reputation of one of the world's most important news organizations, or with an ongoing news event, or to take the small amount of time with Google to familiarize yourself with the said event.

[Darth Wong]

So after all these years of mocking Clinton's ineffective cruise-missile strikes, the Bushies are emulating them

[Oni Koneko Damien]

Yeah, I sort of think that in this case it isn't quite fair to accuse the BBC of institutional racism, pro-Christian and pro-American bias, given that they're applying the Islamist lable to Islamic Courts Union, a group that happens to describe itself as Islamist.

But then I guess it's a lot easier to post some glib cynical bullshit, than to be familiar with the reputation of one of the world's most important news organizations, or with an ongoing news event, or to take the small amount of time with Google to familiarize yourself with the said event.

You're right, I jumped the gun and posted a stupid remark without really thinking. I apologize.

[MKSheppard]

So after all these years of mocking Clinton's ineffective cruise-missile strikes, the Bushies are emulating them

Wrong.

Clinton's cruise missile strikes were pointless; because they were against mobile targets, e.g fluid meetings which broke up; and the missiles couldn't be retargeted in flight. Plus they cost a lot.

Bush's strikes are from platforms which can follow the targets in real time and then strike at will; like for example, the bad guys break off a meeting early, pile into a car and drive a way; our UAV or AC-130 can then follow the car and when we deem it most useful, destroy it.

[Lonestar]

I see that "US Aircraft" bombed the target. I wonder if they were directed there by Ethiopians or SF?

[Sea Skimmer]

So it was bombed by an AC-130 flying extremely low with missiles? Yeah that doesn’t work, it would be nice to know what really happened.

[PainRack]

Wrong.

Clinton's cruise missile strikes were pointless; because they were against mobile targets, e.g fluid meetings which broke up; and the missiles couldn't be retargeted in flight. Plus they cost a lot.

Bush's strikes are from platforms which can follow the targets in real time and then strike at will; like for example, the bad guys break off a meeting early, pile into a car and drive a way; our UAV or AC-130 can then follow the car and when we deem it most useful, destroy it.

Are you even aware of what happened during Clinton cruise missile attacks? They were attacks against fixed installations such as SAM sites or in Afghanistan, against training camps. Installations determined by a variety of intelligence resources including Predators.

There was also a stunning example where Rumsfield called off the Predator surveillance of Al Queda days prior to 9/11, Predator set there in the last days of the Clinton Adminstration under Clarke.

[FSTargetDrone]

So it was bombed by an AC-130 flying extremely low with missiles? Yeah that doesn’t work, it would be nice to know what really happened.

Yeah, that quote from one of the Islamists doesn't exactly sound informed:

Islamist spokesman Sheikh Mukhtar Robow said the US was trying to hit Islamist hideouts in the area.

"The Americans bombed the town and hit civilian targets, thinking that they were Islamist hideouts. They used an AC-130 plane," he told the AFP news agency.

Perhaps "bombed" is just their generic term for air to ground attacks.

[Big Orange]

There was also a stunning example where Rumsfield called off the Predator surveillance of Al Queda days prior to 9/11, Predator set there in the last days of the Clinton Adminstration under Clarke.

Why the fuck were the hypercorrupt, incompetent, and nasty Bush maladministration pulling America's guard down at almost every turn in the months leading up to 9/11?

[Darksider]

Why the fuck were the hypercorrupt, incompetent, and nasty Bush maladministration pulling America's guard down at almost every turn in the months leading up to 9/11?

Remember, never attribute to malice what can be more easily attributed to sheer incompetence.

Suggest anything else and you'll come of as a tin-foil hat nutter.

Bush and Co. were simply incompetent, that is ALL.

[Big Orange]

Remember, never attribute to malice what can be more easily attributed to sheer incompetence.

Suggest anything else and you'll come off as a tin-foil hat nutter.

Bush and Co. were simply incompetent, that is ALL.

I do not believe in fully coherent 9/11 cospiracies at all, it was something as banal universal apathy, security mismangement mainly tied to the Bush clowns, and pure rotten luck on America's part that helped along the hole in one carried out by the 9/11 hijackers. Why is Clinton widely blamed by the whinging right for 9/11 when at least he carried out a solid enough token effort to get rid of Bin Laden? He could've been more determined, but he shouldn't be entirely blamed for leaving too many gates ajar in crucial areas that should've been closed up weeks to months ago before 9/11 with little effort.

[The Spartan]

There was also a stunning example where Rumsfield called off the Predator surveillance of Al Queda days prior to 9/11, Predator set there in the last days of the Clinton Adminstration under Clarke.

Why the fuck were the hypercorrupt, incompetent, and nasty Bush maladministration pulling America's guard down at almost every turn in the months leading up to 9/11?

Because Captain Chucklefuck wanted to go after Iraq. He didn't care about al Qaeda and ignored any warnings about them.

Hell, I still don't think he really, truly cares about AQ except as a propaganda tool for his war, which itself is just a desperate attempt to show up daddy.

[PainRack]

Remember, never attribute to malice what can be more easily attributed to sheer incompetence.

Suggest anything else and you'll come of as a tin-foil hat nutter.

Bush and Co. were simply incompetent, that is ALL.

I won't use the word incompetant. Just politics. Its clear that the Bush adminstration defined its policies by being the anti-Clinton. Thus, anything that Clinton was weak in, the Bush Adminstration would be strong, anything the Clintons saw worth in doing, the Bush would abandon.
From China, Korea, Free Trade, Climate change, even the style of leadership(anyone remember which official stated that Bush doesn't lead by polls?), the incoming adminstration defined itself by being the opposite of the supposedly corrupt, ineffective precedessor. That they won't make the mistakes the Clintons did.

[Sea Skimmer]

Perhaps "bombed" is just their generic term for air to ground attacks.

I assumed as much, but still, an AC-130 isn’t going to fly in daylight when you can see it, and its not going to fly low which makes it absurdly vulnerable to any type of shoulder fired SAM and even AAA I think odds are no one on the ground actually knows what hit them but they knew thanks to the media of the world that AC-130s had been used before. It might have been an AC-130, or a group of Predators will Hellfire’s, or one of the classified drones flying around, or some combination of the above.

[MKSheppard]

Link

U.S. forces found, targeted and killed in a Somali desert city the senior al Qaeda operative who masterminded the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Africa and had since spent a decade in hiding, The Washington Times has learned.


Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, who is one of the FBI's most-wanted terrorists, was the target of a U.S. missile strike on a residence in Dobley, a small town in southern Somalia near the Kenyan border, according to a U.S. military official who spoke to The Times on the condition of anonymity because of the nature of the operation.

[FSTargetDrone]

Perhaps "bombed" is just their generic term for air to ground attacks.

I assumed as much, but still, an AC-130 isn’t going to fly in daylight when you can see it, and its not going to fly low which makes it absurdly vulnerable to any type of shoulder fired SAM and even AAA I think odds are no one on the ground actually knows what hit them but they knew thanks to the media of the world that AC-130s had been used before. It might have been an AC-130, or a group of Predators will Hellfire’s, or one of the classified drones flying around, or some combination of the above.

I agree. They may not have even known what they were looking at (or thought they saw) and merely spouted out some aircraft designation that they heard elsewhere, as you say.