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From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Mon Sep 27 2010 - 09:39:29 EDT
Helicopter Attacks Militant Meeting in Somalia
By MOHAMED IBRAHIM and
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/g/jeffrey_gettle
man/index.html?inline=nyt-per> JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: September 27, 2010
MOGADISHU, Somalia - An unidentified military helicopter blasted rockets at
a house where Somali militants were meeting on Sunday, according to
residents and insurgent leaders, in an apparent strike against the
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/s/al-shab
ab/index.html?inline=nyt-org> Shabab insurgent group.
Residents in Merca, a seaside town firmly in Shabab hands, said that a
foreign military helicopter was flying in low circles overhead on Sunday
morning before the attack. The residents said they saw the helicopter coming
from the ocean, but they did not see any ships or know what country it
belonged to.
According to one Shabab official, the helicopter's rockets narrowly missed
killing several leaders of the group.
Immediately after the attack, the group started blocking the roads in and
outside the town and started investigations. They also seized cellphones
from local reporters in an effort to ensure that the information did not go
beyond Merca, according to residents.
The rockets hit "between two houses, and for God's sake no one has been
killed or injured in the attack," said the Shabab official, who spoke from
Merca on the condition of anonymity. "It was in fact a house where Shabab
officials were meeting."
A senior Pentagon official and a senior military official, both in
Washington, said late Sunday that there were no American aircraft in the
area and no American involvement in the attack. In fact, it would be highly
unlikely for a single American helicopter gunship to carry out such an
attack without one or more other aircraft nearby.
Last year, <http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/15/world/africa/15raid.html>
American commandos killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a wanted agent of
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/a/al_qaed
a/index.html?inline=nyt-org> Al Qaeda, in a helicopter raid not far from
Merca. That swath of southern
<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/so
malia/index.html?inline=nyt-geo> Somalia is widely believed to be a
sanctuary for several wanted terrorists and insurgent leaders, including
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/31/magazine/31Jihadist-t.html> Omar Hammami,
an American militant originally from Alabama who has steadily risen up the
Shabab ranks and become one of the organization's top field commanders.
The Shabab, who have gained a reputation of ruthlessness for stoning
adulterers and chopping off hands, control much of Somalia and have drawn
increasingly close to Al Qaeda in recent months. At the same time, Somalia's
internationally recognized transitional federal government, which has
received tens of millions of dollars of American aid, is struggling to
control a few blocks of the capital, Mogadishu.
Over the weekend, the government was hit by another potentially damaging
blow. Ahlu Sunna Wal Jamaa, a powerful group of moderate Islamists, abruptly
quit the government
<http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/30/world/africa/30shabab.html?scp=1&sq=Ahlus
unna&st=nyt> after having signed a power-sharing pact earlier this year.
On Saturday, Sheik Abdullahi Abdirahman Abu Yusuf, a spokesman for Ahlu
Sunna Wal Jamaa, announced, "We will not be part of the upcoming government,
and we will not have any representatives as well."
He said that "the government of Somalia is not committed to the defense of
the people" and that Ahlu Sunna forces had been the only ones to repel the
Shabab. Ahlu Sunna forces
<http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/24/world/africa/24somalia.html> have driven
the Shabab out of some areas of central Somalia while the transitional
government forces have steadily lost territory to the Shabab, and, on many
occasions, fled from the front lines instead of fighting.
The United States is now indicating that it may be shifting its strategy on
Somalia.
On Friday, Johnnie Carson, the assistant secretary of state for African
affairs, <http://www.state.gov/p/af/rls/spbr/2010/147922.htm> said that the
United States, in addition to supporting the transitional federal
government, will now be "pursuing a second track, which we think is also
increasingly important, and that is we will work to engage more actively
with the governments of Puntland and Somaliland." (Puntland and Somaliland
are two northern regions that are relatively peaceful.)
Mr. Carson added that the United States was also going to "reach out to
groups in south central Somalia, groups in local governments, clans and
subclans that are opposed to Al Shabab."
Mohamed Ibrahim reported from Mogadishu, and Jeffrey Gettleman from Nairobi,
Kenya. Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington.
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