U.S. Strike in Somalia Targets Al-Qaeda Figure
By Karen DeYoung
Washington Post Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 9, 2007; Page A11


A U.S. Navy AC-130 gunship attacked suspected al-Qaeda members inside Somalia on Sunday, and U.S. sources said the operation may have hit a senior terrorist figure.

The strike in southern Somalia was launched at night from the U.S. Central Command base in neighboring Djibouti. It was based on joint military-CIA intelligence and on information provided by Ethiopian and Kenyan military forces operating in the area.

It was the first U.S. military action inside Somalia since 1994, when President Bill Clinton withdrew U.S. troops after a failed operation in Mogadishu that led to the deaths of 18 Army Rangers and Delta Force special operations soldiers.

"You had some figures on the move in a relatively unpopulated part of the country," said one source confirming the attack who, like others, would discuss the operation only on the condition of anonymity. "It was a confluence of information and circumstances," he said.

Sources said last night that initial reports from the area indicated the attack had been successful, although information was still scanty. The attack was first reported by CBS News.

One target of the strike, sources said, was Abu Talha al-Sudani, a Sudanese who is married to a Somali woman and has lived in Somalia since 1993 -- the year of the attack against U.S. troops that was chronicled in the book and movie "Black Hawk Down." In a 2001 U.S. court case against Osama bin Laden, Sudani was described by a leading witness as an explosives expert who was close to the al-Qaeda leader.

Sudani is among several senior al-Qaeda operatives who, the Bush administration said, were being sheltered by Islamic fundamentalists who last year seized control of Mogadishu, Somalia's capital. Late last month, the fundamentalists, who controlled much of southern Somalia, were driven out of the capital and were pushed toward the Kenyan border by Ethiopian troops, who installed an internationally backed transitional government.

Other al-Qaeda figures who allegedly had taken refuge in Somalia, U.S. officials said, included three participants in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.

The United States has been leading an international diplomatic effort to stabilize Somalia, including organizing an African peacekeeping force to replace the thousands of Ethiopian troops occupying the southern part of the country. It has called on leaders of the transitional government to negotiate a power-sharing arrangement with moderate members of the Islamic leadership who are not seen as terrorist facilitators and who are supported by a significant segment of Somali clans.

Neither effort has met with much success. African countries have been reluctant to offer troops, and the new Somalian leaders have resisted negotiations.

Sources would not confirm that U.S. forces are operating on the ground in the Somalia-Kenyan border area, although one emphasized that "we are working very, very closely" with Kenyan forces.

In remarks to reporters late last week, a senior U.S. general with expertise in East Africa said there were no plans to deploy U.S. troops to Somalia. The Djibouti-based Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, with approximately 1,500 U.S. personnel, including special operations troops, has the job of conducting anti-terrorist operations and training.

The U.S. Navy presence in the Indian Ocean was stepped up for the strike, with the USS Eisenhower, an aircraft carrier, being deployed to provide air cover and, if needed, evacuate downed airmen and other casualties. The Eisenhower joined several Navy ships from the Fifth Fleet, based in Bahrain, that have been patrolling the area to prevent al-Qaeda elements from fleeing war-torn Somalia by sea, a Navy spokesman said.

The AC-130 gunship is a heavily armed aircraft, with four cannons and a six-barrel Gatling gun capable of firing 1,800 rounds a minute. But its most striking weapon is a computer-operated 105mm howitzer that juts sideways from the middle of the aircraft. An offensive behemoth that is relatively defenseless against counterattack, it flies only at night.

It is a blunt weapon that can scorch a wide swath of territory but is not well suited to precision attacks. Sources last night emphasized that intelligence reports indicated that the targeted area was "unpopulated."

The Bush administration has long claimed the right to launch military attacks in other countries when suspected terrorist targets have been identified. In 2002, a missile fired by a U.S. Predator drone over Yemen killed six suspected al-Qaeda terrorists riding in a car across the desert about 100 miles east of that nation's capital. Officials later said the attack had been carried out with the approval of the Yemeni government

A Predator strike was ordered by the CIA last January in response to intelligence placing Ayman al-Zawahiri, the second-ranking al-Qaeda leader and bin Laden's chief deputy, at a compound near Afghanistan's border with Pakistan. The attack killed a reported 17 people, including six women and six children, but not Zawahiri, who apparently was not at the compound at the time of the strike.

Staff writers Thomas E. Ricks and Robin Wright and staff researcher Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.

Neat stuff. I'm going to love reading a book in 30 years about everything that is going on behind the scenes now. I have a feeling the cold war has nothing on this one.

__________________
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Aside from the constant fear of nuclear obliteration, yeah.

B

Bot- Two things I am pondering- is this going to be similar to the "Hunt for WMD" another "speculative strike" or is this to take the heat off of the mess in Iraq?

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Only OBL's head could take the heat of Iraq. Not that it would do much in reality but it would look good.

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We have had a large force in Dijoubiti for years; it sounds like they have found a mark that is media worthy.

I think you are right on Hatterasguy....

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1993 300D 2.5L 240,000+ miles

My next door neighbor, a former US Army Col. has flown on one of those in Ethiopia. She described what it is like when going full-tilt. Whoooweee! that must be something to see. I wouldn't want to be anywhere on the ground when that bad mofo goes over!

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Correct me if I'm wrong here. An AC-130 is a C-130 cargo plane (4 prop engines) with its cargo bay chock full of big guns, machine guns, a howizer-type gun etc....

what is the navy doing with an AC130, I thought that only the USAF had AC-130's.

(someone needs to repost that nighttime AC 130 attack vid where they picked off the targets like a video game... "let me get confirmation...yeah...yeah...go ahead and level the building..." =)

Its off to FAS.org for me =)

-John

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Angel, the story didn't say the Navy was operating the Spectre -- the Eisenhower was there to provide air cover and rescue forces for the Spectre.

As to the description of an AC-130 being "a blunt weapon that can scorch a wide swath of territory but is not well suited to precision attacks," they got that just about backwards. It is very precise and does not cover a wide area.

This is supposed to be an AC130 in action in Afganistan.

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2460146

It would look good for a few days and then the reality of the furor to avenge the new martyr would gather steam.

We're in serious Hydra-Headed beast mode, it would be nice if surgical strikes actually did some good but I'm afraid it'll be gist for their mill more than gain for us.

We slaughtered peopole wholesale in Vittnam and all it did was make the Cong believe we were cowards for falling back on high tech.

ps: Vietnam: a crucial bit of our trial and error learning experience that many would like to ignore.

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1984 300D, 138K

I thought the same thing. Reorter's mistake or does Navy operate one?

"A U.S. Navy AC-130 gunship attacked suspected al-Qaeda members inside Somalia on Sunday,... "

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Reading your M103 duty cycle:
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showpost.php?p=831799&postcount=13
http://www.peachparts.com/shopforum/showpost.php?p=831807&postcount=14

Yeah they got it mixed up. A Spectre is what you use when you want to take out one car in a parking lot, its about as blunt as a razor blade!

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There were undoubtedly clandestine CIA & SF forces on the ground in Somalia. They were probably being run out of Djibouti, where we have declared force (as MedMech indicated). People on the ground probably fingered the Al Qaedistas and painted them with laser that night so the folks in the spook plane could target them precisely. This is the clandestine side of the WoT.

There are at least 3 other parts, covert war (unacknowledged, non-uniformed contractors and CIA working with partisans), diplomacy, and financial. The covert war we should never hear about (ideally), whether we win or lose. The clandestine war you may hear about because it uses combined CIA & uniformed services. Uniformed services MUST obey the UCMJ and Geneva Conventions (covert ops do not). In this engagement the aircraft was clearly marked and I'll bet the people on the ground were disguised military and CIA and partisans.

If you are asking is it a "Wag the Dog" type thing, I don't believe so.