U.S. hunted al Qaeda suspects from Ethiopia -NYT

[maddezmom]

WASHINGTON, Feb 23 (Reuters) - The U.S. military used bases inside Ethiopia last month in a quiet campaign to capture or kill top al Qaeda leaders in the Horn of Africa, The New York Times reported on its Web site on Thursday, citing U.S. officials.

The Times said the campaign included the use of an airstrip in eastern Ethiopia to conduct air strikes against Islamic militants in neighboring Somalia.

Officials were quoted as saying the clandestine relationship with Ethiopia also included significant information-sharing on the militants' positions and information from U.S. spy satellites with the Ethiopian military, the newspaper reported.

Members of a secret U.S. special operations unit, Task Force 88, were deployed in Ethiopia and Kenya and ventured into Somalia, the officials added.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman declined to discuss details of the operation with the Times, but the paper said some officials agreed to provide specifics because they considered it an relative success story. They said the campaign disrupted terrorist networks in Somalia and led to the death or capture of several Islamic militants.

more:http://mobile.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N23199482.htm

flashback:

Breaking on CNNI: The 3 suspected al Qaeda high value targets still alive in Somalia

Official: Top Somalia al-Qaida not dead


NAIROBI, Kenya - None of the top three suspected terrorists in Somalia were killed in a U.S. airstrike this week, but Somalis with close ties to al-Qaida were killed, a senior U.S. official in the region said Thursday.

A day earlier, a Somali official had said a U.S. intelligence report had referred to the death of one of the three senior al-Qaida members believed responsible for bombing U.S. embassies in East Africa. But U.S. and Ethiopian troops in southern Somalia were still pursuing the three, the U.S. official said Thursday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=102&topic_id=2683933

[951-Riverside]

1. Task Force "88" *smirk*

Wikipedia: "Eighty-eight is used as code among white supremacists to identify each other. H is the 8th letter of the alphabet, so 88 is taken to stand for HH which in turn means Heil Hitler."

[babylonsister]

2. //GASP!!!// nt