–UPDATED 1.10.07–

UPDATE (1.10.07): AP reports, “In Washington, U.S. government officials said they had no reason to believe that the suspect, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, had been killed. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the information’s sensitivity.”

Fazul Abdullah Mohammed was the target, a top al Qaeda leader in Africa. Responsible for the embassy bombings in ’98. News video & analysis of strike.

BREAKING NEWS: NBC is reporting
that U.S. airstrikes are underway targeting al Qaeda in Somalia.

Here’s more
from CBS.

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.

More soon…. see updates.

UPDATE (11:00 a.m. – 1.9.07): Reuters… “After the disastrous 1992-94 U.S. mission, chronicled in the film “Black Hawk Down,” Washington had kept clear of intervention in Somalia for a decade. But the CIA was widely reported to have been bankrolling warlords who controlled Mogadishu before being ousted by the Islamists last June.” But still no news on who was killed.

UPDATE (12:30 a.m. – 1.9.07): Okay, let’s hash this out a bit. Meles Zenawi is our Prime Minister in Ethiopia. He’s our guy that we in fact backed to invade Somalia and topple the UIC, the Union of Islamic Courts. That’s what the Bush administration wanted because they see the UIC as Islamists pushing Taliban like existence on the people of Somalia. Never mind what the TGF are doing. Below is an article that Ian offered, which I’m going to share. The TGF stands for Somali Transitional Federal Government, which is a fancy way to say a bunch of thugs who are basically doing Zenawi’s bidding in a country that is not his own. This won’t last because Zenawi has troubles of his own, but I digress.

Undoubtedly, Zenawi, under instructions from his US benefactor, has succeeded to remove the UIC from power, for the time being at least, but he has not been able to decapitate the UIC. The UIC forces hastily abandoned Mogadishu to spare civilian population from death and destruction and dispersed their militia and heavy weaponry around the country to fight another day. Conversely, the so-called extremist elements within the UIC, which Ethiopia and the US longed to capture or kill, are still out there in the wilderness, thumping their noses at Melez Zenawi. As part of its on-going war against what George Bush described as “Islamo fascists”, Washington gave Addis Ababa the green light to invade Somalia and topple the UIC, which it [Washington] views “a new Taliban and al-Qa’ida sympathisers who were turning Somalia into a haven for terrorists including those responsible for the US embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998,” according to The Australian. “Washington encouraged Addis Ababa to go ahead. They provided the same sort of diplomatic cover they did for Israel going into Lebanon last summer, and for similar reasons — to keep a foothold in the region,” said analyst Michael Weinstein according to The Daily Nation. … (snip) The TFG may be recognised by some 88 countries but, in the eyes of the Somali people, it is a discredited and reviled government associated with warlords. Most, if not all, of the blood–thirsty warlords who wreaked death and destruction across Mogadishu and its environs for the past one-and-a-half-decades were cabinet ministers that belonged to the TFG. Ethiopia’s Zenawi: Betting on a losing horse

Also see Mash’s post, which points out a very important detail, which we talk about a lot around here. The fact that people of any country in chaos will choose the devil that provides peace and security over the angel who cannot every time. However, the UIC are actually doing some good for the Somalis. As Ian also points out, think Hezbollah in Lebanon. From the same article…

On the contrary, the UIC forces brought about peace and stability throughout much of central and southern Somalia. They re-opened Mogadishu airport and seaport for business, both of which closed for more than one-and-a-half decades. They cleaned and collected mountains of garbage from the streets of Mogadishu, restored law and order, expelled all blood-thirsty warlords who killed, maimed and destroyed the lives of thousands upon thousands of Somali people and sold innocent muslim clerics by the dozen to the US as part of the CIA extra-ordinary rendition. The UIC authorities removed all barricades erected by TFG warlord-ministers in the main roads between townships and cities. More importantly, they evicted all squatters who occupied properties owned by other people and returned them back to their rightful owners. If there were any blunders and mistakes to which the UIC authorities fell victim, it was that they have over reacted with their approach to certain sensitive and contentious issues, such as the banning of Khat where thousands of people’s livelihoods depended on, their empty rhetorical threats against Ethiopia [though Ethiopia occupied Somali territories] and the break-away republic of Somaliland where they could have won friends rather than enemies. Such is the stark difference between the TFG and the UIC. It simply defies the conventional wisdom as to how the people who suffered so much for so many years under the warlord-ministers of the TFG would suddenly welcome back and offer support to their tormentors.

Obviously, this strike and the subsequent silence about it opens up many lines of questioning. Not the least of which is did we get Fazul Abdullah Mohammed? If we did not then it’s likely there is much more to this strike than meets the eye. In fact, If we did not get Fazul Mohammed, I’d say there are serious questions as to what exactly the strike was to truly accomplish. Catch my drift? One thing is certain, however, and that is Zenawi will lose and Al Qaeda will have another haven, with the U.S. losing out in the end. Read Ian and Mash for more.

UPDATE (4:48 p.m.): The Ethiopians, evidently, chased an East African cell of Al Qaeda group out of Mogadishu. We have been working with the Ethiopians directly on Al Qaeda and other national security interests we have in common. AC-130 gunships, which are attached to Special Forces in the area, acting on information from a Predator drone, then let loose on this Al Qaeda cell today. Bodies have been found, but they have not been identified, so it’s not certain if Fazul was hit. Fazul has been active in east African and Kenya since his twenties. Fazul speaks four languages and is considered one of the best tacticians in Al Qaeda. If Special Forces and the U.S. military got Fazul in this attack, it would be considered a huge win, according to Bob Windrem of MSNBC.