CBS: U.S. Strikes Al Qaeda In Somalia
Contributed by Bill Faith
I was just reading about this on Hot Air when 1stCav emailed to make sure I knew about it. Go Air Force! Give 'em hell! U.S. gunship attacks Al Qaeda in Somalia
Allahpundit
The left gets a new root cause, the rest of us get that rush of well being that invariably comes with payback. Everybody wins. The targets included the senior al Qaeda leader in East Africa and an al Qaeda operative wanted for his involvement in the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Africa, Martin reports. Those terror attacks killed more than 200 people.
The AC-130 gunship is capable of firing thousands of rounds per second, and sources say a lot of bodies were seen on the ground after the strike, but there is as yet, no confirmation of the identities…
Once they started moving, the al Qaeda operatives became easier to track, and the U.S. military started preparing for an air strike, using unmanned aerial drones to keep them under surveillance and moving the aircraft carrier Eisenhower out of the Persian Gulf toward Somalia. But when the order was given, the mission was assigned to the AC-130 gunship operated by the U.S. Special Operations command.
If the attack got the operatives it was aimed at, reports Martin, it would deal a major blow to al Qaeda in East Africa.
Update: If we got the people we’re hoping we got, you’ll see one or more of these names in the news very shortly ...
Update: The USS Eisenhower has been sent to Somalia in case jets are needed for further strikes.
1stCav also notes: I feel pretty sure that the CBS boy got their nomenclature wrong on the 'thousands of rounds per second'. S/B 1,000's/minute
He's right, of course. Still sorta tough to outrun. Yeee-haw!
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Breaking: Reports of U.S. airstrikes on al-Qaeda in Somalia
U.S. Strikes al-Qaeda in Somalia
Austin Bay's tracking the situation here.
*** And if there were trains, they would have run on time.
See-Dubya
Writing in the Times of London, columnist Martin Fletcher would like you to quit being so deuced smug about the routing of Somalia's Union of Islamist Courts. After all, just like the Taliban did for Afghanistan, they brought order and security to Somalia. Their leadership included extremists with dangerous intentions and connections. But for six months they achieved the near-impossible feat of restoring order to a country that appeared ungovernable.
This was not done by “suppressing, with draconian punishments, what remained of personal freedoms” — unless you count banning guns and the narcotic qat, which rendered half Somalia’s menfolk senseless. The courts were less repressive than our Saudi Arabian friends. They publicly executed two murderers (a fraction of the 24 executions in Texas last year), and discouraged Western dancing, music and films, but at least people could walk the streets
I don't know Mr. Fletcher's politics--the Times is, after all, a Rupert Murdoch publication--but he's advocating a new vision of the Left very well. Liberty stops at the water's edge. Human rights be damned; order and security are now in vogue all around the world. Even if it is an Al-Qaeda-linked terror regime that brings it.
*** You Can Run But You Can't Hide, The Extended Dance Mix
Ed Morrissey
Perhaps al-Qaeda figured that the US had focused so much on the 9/11 attacks that it had forgotten about one of its earlier attacks on American assets. If so, the terrorists have just discovered that both elephants and donkeys have long memories in America. The US Air Force has attacked the UIC remnants fleeing the Ethiopian Army in southern Somalia, targeting at least two AQ leaders that masterminded two suicide-bombing attacks on American embassies in 1998: A U.S. Air Force gunship has conducted a strike against suspected members of al Qaeda in Somalia, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports exclusively.
The targets included the senior al Qaeda leader in East Africa and an al Qaeda operative wanted for his involvement in the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Africa, Martin reports. Those terror attacks killed more than 200 people.
The AC-130 gunship is capable of firing thousands of rounds per second, and sources say a lot of bodies were seen on the ground after the strike, but there is as yet, no confirmation of the identities.
The gunship flew from its base in Dijibouti down to the southern tip of Somalia, Martin reports, where the al Qaeda operatives had fled after being chased out of the capital of Mogadishu by Ethiopian troops backed by the United States.
The Ethiopians did us a big favor by dislodging the Islamists from Mogadishu. Once on the run, the US could bring all of its technological assets on line to track them, and the Air Force waited long enough for all of them to run into the trap. The Navy positioned the USS Eisenhower in the waters nearby Somalia just in case it finds even more targets to strike.
That hasn't stopped the Ethiopians, either. Their forces have surrounded an al-Qaeda base and may have overrun it by the time you read this post. Between the three forces, including those loyal to the Somalian transitional government, AQ in Africa is about to take a huge blow, perhaps even a fatal defeat. ...
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