U.S. Operations In Somalia Not Over

Ethiopian And U.S. Forces Still Pursuing Al Qaeda Terrorists

(CBS/AP)  Ethiopian and U.S. forces were in pursuit of three top al Qaeda suspects Thursday, with a senior U.S. official confirming that none of them were killed in a U.S. airstrike and were believed to still be in Somalia.

U.S. operations there were not over, the official said. He said they were focused solely on tracking down men involved in international terrorism and not Somali Islamic fundamentalists who had challenged Somalia's internationally recognized government for power and were accused of harboring al Qaeda suspects. The official in Kenya was authorized to speak only on condition of anonymity.

Michael E. Ranneberger, the U.S. ambassador to Kenya, made similar comments to the BBC. He also told the BBD the United States would support moderate Islamic-oriented politicians participating in a Somali government of national unity, as long as they rejected violence.

"We think that all Somalis who renounce violence and extremism have a role to play in the future of the country," Ranneberger said.

The Somali president's chief of staff said on Wednesday that the al Qaeda cell leader for East Africa, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, had been killed in a U.S. airstrike Monday. But the U.S. official said he was confident that none of the three top terror suspects believed to be in Somalia were dead.

"The three high-value targets are still of intense interest to us," the official said. "What we're doing is still ongoing, we're still in pursuit, us and the Ethiopians."

The official also contradicted numerous statements by Somali government officials, saying the United States had carried out only one air strike on Monday and that only eight to 10 militants with ties to al Qaeda has been killed. He said subsequent reports of more air strikes and civilian casualties were rumors and disinformation spread by the Islamic extremists.

In Washington, officials said U.S. special operations forces were in Somalia. Pentagon officials dismissed the idea they are planning to send large numbers of ground troops.

U.S. and Somali officials said Wednesday a small American team has been providing military advice to Ethiopian and Somali forces on the ground. The officials provided little detail and spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

Ethiopia sent troops into Somalia on Dec. 24 to attack the Somali Islamic fundamentalist movement. Most of the Islamic militiamen have dispersed, but a few hardcore members have fled south toward the Kenyan border and the Indian Ocean.

The U.S. has repeatedly accused the group of harboring three top terror suspects wanted in connection with the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania: Fazul, Abu Talha al-Sudani and Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan.

The U.S. Navy has moved additional forces into waters off the Somali coast, where they have conducted security missions, monitoring maritime traffic and intercepting and interrogating crew on suspicious ships in international waters.

The official said Kenyan naval forces had set up a blockade along the sea border to make sure no suspected terrorists could infiltrate the country. The Kenyan army is also intercepting suspects trying to sneak across the land border, he added.

Earlier this week, police at the Kenyan coastal border town of Kiunga arrested the wives and several children of two of the embassy bombing suspects, according to an internal police report seen by The Associated Press Wednesday. The suspects' relatives had slipped across the border, according to the report.

At the very tip of Somalia, government and Ethiopian forces skirmished with Islamic militiamen on Thursday. Residents said they heard fighting in Ras Kamboni, where extremists with ties to al Qaeda were once believed to have operated a training camp. The remote, forested area has few residents and high frequency radio is the only reliable form of communication.

"We are hearing bombardment in Ras Kamboni. It started around 6 a.m. and the strike is now continuing," one resident said, asking not to be named for fear of retribution. "We can't see planes, but we can hear heavy explosions."

Further north, Ethiopian helicopters and troops attacked around Dobley, a Somali town seven kilometers (four miles) from the Kenyan border, the Ethiopian Information Ministry said in a statement Thursday.

A witnesses said he saw 60 Ethiopian tanks and other military vehicles headed toward El Ade, several hundred kilometers (miles) further east. Fighters loyal to the Islamic militia were seen retreating to the area last week local resident Hassan Hashi told The Associated Press.

A Somali human rights group said Thursday that thousands of Somalis fleeing the fighting were now stranded on the Kenyan border.

CBS News Investigative Reporter Phil Hirschkorn reports Mohammed, also known as Haroun Fazil, had a key role in the twin truck bombings of two U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania on Aug. 7, 1998, which killed 224 people and injured thousands. He's also trained Islamic militants in Somalia and allegedly organized more recent attacks on Israeli tourists in Kenya. Read Hirschkorn's report.

"He's an extraordinarily dangerous individual," Dan Coleman, a retired FBI agent who spent years hunting al Qaeda, told CBS News. "He's the real deal."

Mohammed is seen in footage obtained by CBS News that shows him in the aftermath of a 1996 ferry accident in central Africa's Lake Victoria.

[rusty50-2009]

Two days ago CBS "confirmed" the death of the terrorists. Unsubstantiated "news", simply intended for the purpose of slapping up headlines, which is all any of these ******* news networks really care about.

Selah

[drudge2]

What is worse than a CIA assassination attempt?
A failed CIA assassination attempt.

[antoniof123]

Why would anyone ask our CIA or FBI for help they have made a mess of everything they touch. Somalia would be better off if they just killed them and got it over with.

[marcpcbs]

"U.S.: Somalia Strikes Missed Targets"

That's like saying "D Day" was a failure because we didn't kill Hitler.

The people at CBS who title these stories should be imprisoned for aiding and giving comfort to the enimy.

[marcpcbs]

"U.S.: Somalia Strikes Missed Targets"

That's like saying "D Day" was a failure because we didn't kill Hitler.

The people at CBS who title these stories should be imprisoned for aiding and giving comfort to the enemy.

[jetauma]

Sounds like we ought not to blame cbs so much. The information was given to the Somali Government by our own. It seems more likely we lied in advance of Bush's speech last night to shore up his credibility.
By the way, did you hear him several times refer to the threat IraQ was to us...was it? How? No terorists then, Saddam in the box of a no fly zone. Seems like more news manipulation by the same guy that was tryning to come off as coming clean. It never ends.

[skyk-2009]

Why do Fascist hate our Free Press so? It's simply amazing how they jump on every chance they get. I'd like to ask all you swastika huggers out there why? I know you would like them to report ONLY the Reich's line of things but THAT was not the intent of the Founders... not at all. They intended that the Press be free from the Government for a reason... to incourage and promote DEBATE. To CAUSE desent because it was their belief that the ONLY way we could stay free was WITH desent. Maybe you folks should pick up a course in American History and put away the hate for your neighbors and fellow citizens. THEY did NOT create this mess.... a MORON called George Bush did.

[rharrin1]

So much for intelligence

[thgdriver]

Rusty50

Situation normal, as I like to say about CBS, most of the time they don't give us enough information to comment, other times just a lot of baloney.

[thgdriver]

I'll Tell you this about CBS, if the story goes against what CBS thinks is good for them or their friends , it won't be mentioned in the first place.

So much for a free press when it comes to CBS.

[bildooreilly]

Hey at least they were able to kill some of those villagers though, as long as they were "intending" to kill the terrorists it's all ok right.... hey isn't that what the terrorists do too... they think killing civilians is ok as long as it helps their larger goals, see you morons aren't too far off from being the same freakin thing... I'm sure this won a lot of "hearts and minds" of somalians... enjoy your terror war you terrorists..

[bluestardad]

so what does that mean Karl Rove the fake hit did not raise public opinion enough for Bush's Iraq increase to pass Congress? So now you are backing down!

[nothappyatall]

"he U.S. official said Thursday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record to the media. "

Yeah more yellow journalism quotes from maybe or maybe not sources.
If this one wasn't "authorized" then a real journalist FINDS someone who IS and then quotes and names them.

[nothappyatall]

"U.S.: Somalia Strikes Missed Targets"

Yeah, we spend BILLIONS on high tech scopes, radar, planes, night bvision, heat seaking weapons, satelights capable of reading license plates on cars, and we can't even hit the right targets in a THIRD WORLD country.

This isnt WW2 using old radio phones and binoculars Marcpcbs

[nativewoman]

The people at CBS who title these stories should be imprisoned for aiding and giving comfort to the enemy.
Posted by marcpcbs at 10:40 AM : Jan 11, 2007

Reporters aiding and giving comfort to the enemy BY TELLING THE TRUTH?

The United States government has cried wolf at least once too often. Nothing they can say can be believed.

[annabanana-1]

It is typical. Just when you think that maybe, just maybe we got one "right", on further investigation it turns out to be just more friggen spin.

(sigh)

[alphaa10-2009]

A few comments here have been critical of CBS for the news story that at least one of al Qaeda's top operatives in the Somalia region had been killed. That information seems to have originated with the US government, according to the CBS story yesterday. As CBS reported in that story, "The death of al Qaeda suspect Fazul Abdullah Mohammed was detailed in an American intelligence report passed on to the Somali authorities."

If this information from the Bush administration is wrong, how is it, then, some red posters are whining about CBS? The news story from every news network changes when information from US sources changes, as would be expected from any situation where all the information is not yet available or is unconfirmed.

Did those red posters then complain to Bush about their disappointment and confusion over the Somali strike? Of course not, but they promptly blamed somebody else. These are the same red posters who refused to recognize a monumental Bush failure at Katrina, but searched for local officials to divert the blame. Their rule-- "distract, divert, deny"-- was learned from the Bush regime, the most criminal, corrupt and anti-American of any in US history.

[sharncedar]

"top al Qaeda suspects "

How much more of this *** do we have to swallow. What is the reality to "al Qaeda" especially in Somalia. technically wasn't "al Qaeda" just a small group around Bin Laden, long ago broken up.

This is such ***, every time the idiot murderers in the military-industrial complex want to kill some people for who knows what reason, they give this same lousy propaganda - "top al Qeada fugitives raped and murdered by escaped evil Bush twin" "top al Qaeda children run over by Bush's pickup truck" "top al Qaeda operatives accidentally shot and killed by *** Cheney"

Whoever they kill, whatever law they break, whatever personal violation someone commits, they just say "al Qeada" and the news media repeats it like parrots. Its a magic green light to any and all behavior that the Bush administration can imagine, no matter how wrong, how twisted.

For the media to repeat this kind of big lie without skepticism makes them a party to the acts, we need to remember and hold them accountable. Accessory to a capital crime.

[j-whitman]

Another "Shock and Oops"

[arthurcl1]

They can't even get Osama Bin Laden after all these years and can't even get the Somali Al Queda leaders after this bombing? Were just paying for the bombs so they can buy more from the weapons makers pockets!

[arthurcl1]

A senior U.S. official confirming that none of them were killed in a U.S. airstrike and were believed to still be in Somalia.

[grazinggoat]

Again lying to the face of the Army and the American, justifying the spending of hundred thousand dollars per piece of missile. Why don't they aim at sharks in the middle of the Indian Ocean and declare (under Cover of Animosity)those Sharks were senior Alqaeda members . That is as good as a lie could be.

[inventagod]

BLACK HAWK DOWN (Again???)

[feelfree1]

I suspect that the mass murdering crusade has only just begun by the Bush-puppet's crusade against the people of Somalia.

Anything to distract people from their many other crimes and failures.

[feelfree1]

No doubt that CBS will continue to keep us informed about the next boogey-man which is "believed" to be "linked" to some scary organization or another, and how we "just missed" them, once again.