From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Tue Sep 15 2009 - 10:28:27 EDT
Somalia: Islamists vow revenge against US for death of al-Qaeda
terrorist Al-Qaeda-inspired
extremists in Somalia have vowed to retaliate for a US helicopter raid which
killed a key suspect linked to terrorist attacks in Kenya. By Mike Pflanz in
Nairobi
Published: 12:18PM BST 15 Sep 2009
A senior figure within the hardline al-Shabaab insurgency in Somalia said
"this can only make our will to defeat America and its allies stronger".
Speaking from Mogadishu but refusing to be named, the man threatened more
attacks on Somalia's weak Western-backed transitional government and a
greater focus on US allies in east Africa.
This is likely to mean both Kenya and Ethiopia.
His comments came the day after US special forces used at least two
helicopters to launch a daylight attack on a convoy of vehicles understood
to be carrying senior al-Shabaab leaders.
The helicopters took off shortly after noon from a US warship patrolling
close to the southern Somali coast.
Security sources in neighbouring Kenya said that commanders would have
received specific and urgent intelligence that one of the men on the FBI's
most wanted list was on the move.
Washington has been hunting Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan since 2002, when he is
alleged to have helped lead terror attacks on a Kenyan beach hotel popular
with Israelis. Ten Kenyans and three Israelis died.
Kenya also wanted to interrogate Kenyan-born Nabhan over possible links to
the US embassy bombing in 1998.
The US had tried to eliminate him before, with a failed missile attack early
last year.
On Monday, less than an hour after they took off, the helicopters strafed a
the small group of four-wheel-drives as they sped towards Barawe town, 130
miles south of Mogadishu.
"I heard the helicopters, they were much lower than I have seen them
before," said Hussein Abdullahi Osman, a teacher in a village close to
Barawe.
"Very soon after there was a lot of noise and then smoke was rising into the
air." US officials anonymously confirmed that Nabhan had been the target and
that the raid â had been a success'.
At least one of the helicopters landed at the attack site to collect
Nabhan's body and that of another man who died. Two injured men were also
taken into custory, reports said.
Al-Shabaab's leader, Aden Hashi Ayro, was killed in a US warplane attack in
May last year.
But other US attempts to neutralise al-Qaeda's allies in the Horn of Africa
have met with limited success.
Monday's mission is believed to be the first time that US helicopters have
landed in Somalia since the notorious Black Hawk Down debacle of 1993.
"It seems they have listened to complaints over earlier civilian casualties,
this was a much cleaner, more targeted strike," said a Western diplomat in
Nairobi focused on Somalia.
The attack will have "sent other al-Qaeda operatives scurrying for cover",
said EJ Hogendoorn, a Somalia expert at the International Crisis Group.
"I would take any threats of retaliation made now with a grain of salt," he
added.
"But fears expressed in the past about terrorists to be able to attack soft
targets in the region is still very much relevant. The defences are still
very weak."
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