U.S. targeted al Qaeda suspects in Somalia: report

by Actual News Geezer | January 8, 2007 at 04:45 pm

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The US is back in Somalia, but clearly on a more limited basis than the debacle of 1992 - 1994 (see the Army's own version, below).

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A U.S. gunship conducted a strike against two suspected al Qaeda operatives in southern Somalia, but it was not known whether the mission was successful, CBS News reported on Monday.

The U.S. Air Force plane, operated by the Special Operations Command, flew from its base in Djibouti to the southern tip of Somalia, where the al Qaeda suspects were believed to have fled from the capital Mogadishu, the U.S. network reported.

A Pentagon spokesman said he had no information on the report.

The al Qaeda operatives, who were not named, included a suspect in the car bomb attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, the report said.

From the United States Army in Somalia - US military site

"The United States Army has a long tradition of humanitarian relief. No
such operation has proven as costly or shocking, however, as that
undertaken in Somalia from August 1992 to March 1994. Greeted initially
by Somalis happy to be saved from starvation, U.S. troops were slowly
drawn into interclan power struggles and ill-defined "nation-building"
missions. The American people woke up one day in early October 1993 to
news reports of dozens of our soldiers killed or wounded in fierce
fighting in the streets of the capital city Mogadishu. These disturbing
events of a decade ago have taken on increasing meaning after the
horrific attacks of 11 September 2001."