U.S. Used Bases in Ethiopia to Hunt Al Qaeda in Africa (NYT)

[Eugene]

U.S. Used Bases in Ethiopia to Hunt Al Qaeda in Africa

By MICHAEL R. GORDON and MARK MAZZETTI
Published: February 23, 2007

WASHINGTON, Feb. 22 — The American military quietly waged a campaign from Ethiopia
last month to capture or kill top leaders of Al Qaeda in the Horn of Africa, including the
use of an airstrip in eastern Ethiopia to mount airstrikes against Islamic militants in
neighboring Somalia, according to American officials.

The close and largely clandestine relationship with Ethiopia also included significant
sharing of intelligence on the Islamic militants’ positions and information from American
spy satellites with the Ethiopian military. Members of a secret American Special Operations
unit, Task Force 88, were deployed in Ethiopia and Kenya, and ventured into Somalia, the
officials said.

The counterterrorism effort was described by American officials as a qualified success that
disrupted terrorist networks in Somalia, led to the death or capture of several Islamic
militants and involved a collaborative relationship with Ethiopia that had been developing
for years.

-snip-

While Washington resisted officially endorsing an Ethiopian invasion, American officials from
several government agencies said that the Bush administration decided last year that an
incursion was the best option to dislodge the Islamists from power.

-snip-

Full article: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/23/world/africa/23somalia.html?hp

[babylonsister]

1. The country 'Somalia' might have gone a long way in explaining this.

Too bad I no longer trust anyone working for this admin, civilian or military.

[ShortnFiery]

2. Wow! Would that be a grand recruiting video?

:eyes:



Marines Conduct Firing
Exercise with Host Nation Troops
By U.S. Marine Sgt. Bradly Shaver


http://www.defendamerica.mil/articles/oct2003/a093003a.html

CAMP LEMONIER, Djibouti – Marines from Mike Co., Task Force Rawhide, 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade (Anti-Terrorism) and soldiers from 3rd platoon, Charlie Company, 10th Mountain Division, trained alongside host nation militaries here during a live-fire training exercise that included helicopter operations Sept. 24.

This training, designed to strengthen relations between three countries, was the first Tri-Lateral Firing Exercise held with service members from Combined Joint Task Force – Horn of Africa, French Forces Djibouti and Djiboutian Armed Forces at a range near Camp Lemonier.

The Marines and soldiers are here supporting the CJTF-HOA mission of detecting, deterring and defending against transnational terrorism in the East African region.

Master Sgt. Fields encourages any service member aboard Camp Lemonier to participate in the training that goes on outside of Camp. “There are many training opportunities here that I would like to see more participation in with American troops,” he said. “No matter the service or job title, come along to enhance your knowledge, experience and fighting capabilities while deployed to the Horn of Africa.”

[maddezmom]

3. another one of their successes

:eyes:

Breaking on CNNI: The 3 suspected al Qaeda high value targets still alive in Somalia
Posted by maddezmom in Latest Breaking News
Thu Jan 11th 2007, 08:24 AM
A senior U.S. official denies that al Qaeda terrorist Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a suspect in the 1998 embassy bombings in Africa, was killed in a U.S. airstrike on Somalia.
http://www.cnn.com /

will look for another link

Senior U.S. official in Kenya: Mohammed not dead
NAIROBI, Kenya (CNN) -- Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a suspect in the 1998 embassy bombings in Africa, was not killed in raids in Somalia this week as Somali officials have claimed, a senior U.S. official in Kenya told CNN's Barbara Starr. (Posted 8:24 a.m.)

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/europe/01/11...

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://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070111/ap_on_...

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/maddezmom/136

U.S. launches new attacks in Somalia
Posted by maddezmom in Latest Breaking News
Tue Jan 09th 2007, 10:09 AM
By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN, Associated Press Writer
4 minutes ago

MOGADISHU, Somalia - U.S. helicopter gunships launched new attacks Tuesday against suspected al-Qaida members, a Somali official said, a day after forces launched airstrikes in the first offensive in the African country since 18 U.S. troops were killed there in 1993.

~snip~

Helicopter gunships launched new attacks Tuesday near the scene of a U.S. airstrike in the village of Hayi, although it was not clear if they were American or Ethiopian aircraft, and it was not known if there were any casualties.

Two helicopters "fired several rockets toward the road that leads to the Kenyan border," said Ali Seed Yusuf, a resident of the town of Afmadow in southern Somalia.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070109/ap_on_...

US air strike kills more than 20 in Somalia-elder
09 Jan 2007 15:34:20 GMT

More MOGADISHU, Jan 9 (Reuters) - U.S. warplanes killed between 22 and 27 people in a remote area of southern Somalia during a strike on Tuesday, an elder from a neighbouring town said.

The attack appeared to be a second strike after a U.S. warplane on Monday attacked the village of Hayo in a hunt for al Qaeda suspects. The elder, who declined to be named, spoke to Reuters by telephone from the Kenya-Somalia border crossing at Liboi.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L...

and another blurb about casualties:


KENYA-SOMALIA: Fighting halts effort to verify deadly fever
Dobley is close to the Kenyan border where fighting continues between Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) remnants and Ethiopian-backed Somali government soldiers, who have been chasing them since the UIC were forced out of Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia.

A humanitarian source in the area told IRIN on Tuesday that casualties had been reported when planes carried out air strikes in villages close to Dobley. "We have reports of 22 people killed by the bombing," he said. International media reported that the planes were American, targeting suspected al-Qaeda operatives.

"Most of those killed were in a convoy of donkeys carrying sugar to the outlying villages," which have been rendered inaccessible due to recent heavy rains, said the source, who requested anonymity. Another source told IRIN there were reports of a number of armed militia in the area. "We don't know whether they belonged to the Islamic courts or not but some people are saying that they were there."

The bombardment took place in an area known as Jiiro, a "very good pastureland, with the highest concentration of cattle in the Juba valley", said the humanitarian source, adding that whether there were militants in the area or not, "civilians had been hit".
more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/I...

http://journals.democraticunderground.com/maddezmom/96

[maddezmom]

4. Ethiopia denies allowing U.S. attacks

By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN, Associated Press Writer
6 minutes ago



MOGADISHU, Somalia - An Ethiopian official denied Friday a report in the New York Times that U.S. troops used Ethiopia as a staging ground for attacks against al-Qaida leaders in Somalia last month.

"This is simply a total fabrication," Bereket Simon, special adviser to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, told The Associated Press.

The Times report, published Friday, cited unnamed American sources officials from several U.S. agencies with a hand in Somalia policy as saying the U.S. soldiers used an airstrip in Ethiopia to mount strikes against Islamic militants in Somalia.

The report went on to say that the U.S. and Ethiopia relationship included the sharing of intelligence on the militants.

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070223/ap_on_re_af/somalia;_ylt=AiI2.SlnrFux3OEUOkW_dKpw24cA