US bombs Somalia

MrBishop

MrBishop

Well-Known Member
US air strikes in Somalia are aimed at al-Qaeda leaders in the region, and based on "credible intelligence", a Pentagon spokesman has said.
In its first official comment on the air strikes, the Pentagon said a raid was carried out on Sunday but declined to say if it had hit its target.

The US has long said al-Qaeda suspects linked to the 1998 US embassy bombings in East Africa took refuge in Somalia.

At least 19 people were killed in US air raids, local Somali elders say.

Fresh air raids have been carried out near the town of Afmadow, 250km further north of Sunday's raid, but it is not clear if these were carried out by the US, or by Ethiopian forces which back the transitional Somali government.

The air strikes are taking place days after the Union of Islamic Courts, which had taken control of much of central and southern Somalia during the past six months, was routed by soldiers from Ethiopia and Somalia's government.

Latest reports from the capital, Mogadishu, say unknown assailants have fired rocket propelled grenades at a building housing Ethiopian troops and Somali government forces. Two explosions were heard, followed by a brief but heavy exchange of automatic gunfire.

Sunday's US attack was carried out by an Air Force AC-130, a heavily-armed gunship that has highly effective detection equipment and can work under the cover of darkness.

This is the first overt military action by the US in Somalia since 1994, the year after 18 US troops were killed in Mogadishu.

Somalia's interim President, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, said the US had the right to bomb those who had attacked its embassies.
Click to expand...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6245943.stm
 
Well... if the jews, christians, and muslims can get into each others business for reasons lost in antiquity... I guess we can still hold a grudge for a decade... or more.


BOMB HANOI AGAIN!
 
Don't piss us off'
SPECTRE-C130.png
 
unclehobart said:
Jeez... 8 years?
Click to expand...


Clinton administration. :D GW was too busy with more current axes to grind, but the lull in Iraq gives us some leeway to do the Mogadishu missions. Best part is...we're not supplying the ground troops. ;)

unc said:
Perhaps we should Tunisia as well for that whole Barbary Pirate business in 1784.
Click to expand...

Tunisia is located in Libya. Remember Wheelus AB? I believe that was the last base commanded by Daniel ("Chappie")James, Jr....
 
unclehobart said:
Tunisia is located in Lybia? We'd better inform the Tunisians then to close their embassy.
Click to expand...

Are we talking about the same Tunis, that was founded by Libya, and was home to the Barbary Coast Pirates in the 17th century, or are we talking about the former French colony?
 
We are probably talking about both in the same breath. Yes we are talking about the old Lybian territory from 2 centuries ago... but the city I'm speaking of that used to house the pirates is now in modern day a different country.

In such a paradox, whom does one punish? The city, the culture, or the government... god knows after all this time there have been 15 flip flops in culture and regime. There is noone left to punish... unless we just need it as a smokescreen to cover something back home.
 
unclehobart said:
We are probably talking about both in the same breath. Yes we are talking about the old Lybian territory from 2 centuries ago... but the city I'm speaking of that used to house the pirates is now in modern day a different country.

In such a paradox, whom does one punish? The city, the culture, or the government... god knows after all this time there have been 15 flip flops in culture and regime. There is noone left to punish... unless we just need it as a smokescreen to cover something back home.
Click to expand...

Or we could just level the whole area, and sift through the detrious for scraps of DNA...:shrug:

Naahh. Let's just leave them alone until they do something to us, and then level the area.
 
I don't want to level the area even if they really do something to us. I seriously doubt they will notice. We tend to fight people who have nothing to lose over the last 40 years. What do they care if we use a $200,000 bomb to topple a few adobe single room dwelings that can be replaced in a weekend. I hate this 'spend $20 to destroy $1' mentality. This fighting war in a civilized manner really sucks. You can't find find enemy combatants because they hide in civilian sectors wearing civilian clothes. House to house actions didn't work in Vietnam, Somalia, Lebanon... and it certainly won't work in Iraq. The only way to really make something stick is to do it in the ugly Roman style. A lack of capitulation will result in utter brutality and genocide. Either you play to win or you play to lose.
 
unclehobart said:
I don't want to level the area even if they really do something to us. I seriously doubt they will notice. We tend to fight people who have nothing to lose over the last 40 years. What do they care if we use a $200,000 bomb to topple a few adobe single room dwelings that can be replaced in a weekend. I hate this 'spend $20 to destroy $1' mentality. This fighting war in a civilized manner really sucks. You can't find find enemy combatants because they hide in civilian sectors wearing civilian clothes. House to house actions didn't work in Vietnam, Somalia, Lebanon... and it certainly won't work in Iraq. The only way to really make something stick is to do it in the ugly Roman style. A lack of capitulation will result in utter brutality and genocide. Either you play to win or you play to lose.
Click to expand...


:shrug: Like I said...level the area.
 
Forget leveling the area. Thats too resource consuming. Just cut off all of the water supply and let nature do the rest.
 
From ABC's interview with bin-boy in 1998:

John Miller: Describe the situation when your men took down the American forces in Somalia.

bin Laden: After our victory in Afghanistan and the defeat of the oppressors who had killed millions of Muslims, the legend about the invincibility of the superpowers vanished. Our boys no longer viewed America as a superpower. So, when they left Afghanistan, they went to Somalia and prepared themselves carefully for a long war. They had thought that the Americans were like the Russians, so they trained and prepared. They were stunned when they discovered how low was the morale of the American soldier.

America had entered with 30,000 soldiers in addition to thousands of soldiers from different countries in the world. ... As I said, our boys were shocked by the low morale of the American soldier and they realized that the American soldier was just a paper tiger. He was unable to endure the strikes that were dealt to his army, so he fled, and America had to stop all its bragging and all that noise it was making in the press after the Gulf War in which it destroyed the infrastructure and the milk and dairy industry that was vital for the infants and the children and the civilians and blew up dams which were necessary for the crops people grew to feed their families. Proud of this destruction, America assumed the titles of world leader and master of the new world order. After a few blows, it forgot all about those titles and rushed out of Somalia in shame and disgrace, dragging the bodies of its soldiers.

America stopped calling itself world leader and master of the new world order, and its politicians realized that those titles were too big for them and that they were unworthy of them. I was in Sudan when this happened. I was very happy to learn of that great defeat that America suffered, so was every Muslim. ...http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/who/interview.html
Click to expand...


And which US President gave binney that warm fuzzy feeling?

Another AQ scumbag dead, this from CNN:

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- A senior al Qaeda suspect--- Fazul Abdullah Mohammed--- wanted for bombing U.S. embassies in East Africa has been killed, a Somali official said Wednesday as witnesses said U.S forces launched a third day of airstrikes.

U.S. warships have been seeking to capture al Qaeda members thought to be fleeing since December 24, when Ethiopia's military invaded in support of the Somali government and drove the Islamic militia out of the capital and toward the Kenyan border.

Mohammed, 32, joined al Qaeda in Afghanistan and trained there with Osama bin Laden, the terror network's leader, according to the transcript of an FBI interrogation of a known associate. He has a $5 million price on his head for allegedly planning the 1998 attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 225 people.

He is also suspected of planning the car bombing of a beach resort in Kenya and the near simultaneous attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner in 2002. Ten Kenyans and three Israelis were killed in the blast at the hotel. The missiles missed the airliner.

The Ethiopian military provided the targeting information, a U.S. military official said on Wednesday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity surrounding U.S. Special Operations missions.
Click to expand...

And this baby took him out: ;)

http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=ac-130&hl=en
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top