somalia and al qaeda

US 'hunted al-Qaeda' in Somalia





The USS Eisenhower was deployed specifically for the US mission against al-Qaeda [AP]



Details have emerged of a US military campaign against suspected al-Qaeda leaders in Somalia with the assistance of Ethiopia, according to officials.



The officials said that American AC-130 gunships flew from an airstrip in eastern Ethiopia on at least two occasions in January to attack Islamic fighters in southern Somalia.





Previous statements from the Pentagon suggested attacks were only launched from a US base in Djibouti against target sites in and around Kismayo in southern Somalia.



The US also flew missions from neighbouring countries and from the USS Eisenhower, an aircraft carrier deployed for the mission.







Close partnership



The extent of US involvement with the Ethiopian military in this campaign is also far more widespread than officials have previously admitted.



American forces have trained Ethiopian commandos and the Pentagon even re-directed satellites to provide battlefield information to Ethiopian troops, it has been reported.



This degree of co-operation between the US and Ethiopia came to the fore after June 2006, when Islamic Courts fighters seized Mogadishu.




A US-Ethiopia mission failed to apprehend
Faizul Abdullah Muhammed [AP]
An Ethiopian-led drive to take back the Somali capital began on December 24th.



'Qualified success'



Within days the Islamic Courts fighters had fled and were being forced south, where many were quickly rounded up by the Ethiopian military and US special forces.



At the same time, the interim government was quickly reinstalled in Mogadishu, achieving one of the primary objectives of the operation.



American officials describe the mission only as a "qualified success" because they failed to capture Faizul Abdullah Muhammed, believed to be a senior al-Qaeda operative.




Muhammed is believed to be responsible for the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, which left 225 people dead.



He was initially reported to have been killed in the attacks but the claim was later withdrawn.