U.S. Battles Islamic Militants In Somalia

A U.S. Warship Attacks Islamic Militants, Somali Government Kills 8 Insurgents In Gun Battle

(AP)  A U.S. warship pounded Somalia's remote coastal northeast, targeting Islamic militants hours after a gun battle with Somali government forces that left eight insurgents dead, officials said Saturday.

The fighting late Friday, which the provincial government said included an American militant, appeared to mark the opening of a new front against Islamic militants in Puntland, a semiautonomous region that has remained relatively peaceful through Somalia's anarchy.

The government declared victory in April against insurgents in the Somali capital, which is in the south. Since then officials of the government and Ethiopian troops sent to prop it up have been targeted in bomb attacks.

“The insurgency appears to be spreading to other parts of Somalia,” said Ted Dagne, specialist in African Affairs at the Congressional Research Service in Washington.

Puntland Vice President Hassan Dahir Mohamoud said eight foreign militants were killed in the fighting and Somali forces were pursuing five others. He told The Associated Press there were no civilian casualties because the area is uninhabited.

Mohamoud said the Puntland government had requested the U.S. navy to help fight the militants.

He said that the government knew the nationalities of five of the foreign militants: the U.S., Britain, Sweden, Eritrea, and Yemen. He said security forces identified them from their passports.

“We have successfully completed the operation against the terrorists who came here and we are chasing the other five,” said Mohamoud, speaking from Puntland's capital, Garowe. He said the total number of militants was 13; government officials earlier reported as many as 35.

Muse Gelle, a regional governor, said the militants arrived in the area near the port town of Bargal by speedboat on Wednesday. He said a U.S. destroyer attacked late Friday.

Musa Ismail Mohamed, a former government economist who lives in Puntland, compared the area where the fighting took place to Afghanistan's Tora Bora, which U.S. forces besieged in 2001 in a failed effort to flush out Osama bin Laden.

“Americans should strike it harder than yesterday and then they will succeed. If they do not do that, then may be Bargal may become a stronghold for terrorists,” Mohamed said Saturday, speaking on the phone from Puntland's main port, Bossaso.

A task force of coalition ships, called CTF-150, is permanently based in the northern Indian Ocean and patrols the Somali coast in hopes of intercepting international terrorists. U.S. destroyers are normally assigned to the task force and patrol in pairs.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates, attending a security conference in Singapore, said he had no comment on the action in northern Somalia as it is “possibly an ongoing operation.”

Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman, could not confirm U.S. involvement in Friday's fighting, but added: “The very nature of some of our operations, as well as the success of those operations is often predicated on our ability to work quietly with our partners and allies.”

Puntland's minister of information, Mohamed Abdulrahman Banga, told the AP that the extremists arrived heavily armed in two fishing boats from southern Somalia, which they controlled for six months last year before being routed by Ethiopian troops.

“They had their own small boats and guns,” he said.

The United States has repeatedly accused Somalia's Council of Islamic Courts of harboring terrorists linked to al Qaeda and allegedly responsible for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The U.S. sent a small number of special operations troops with the Ethiopian forces that drove the Islamic forces into hiding. U.S. warplanes have carried out at least two air strikes in an attempt to kill suspected al Qaeda members, Pentagon officials have said.

[fixitdamnit]

ozilot [appropriate pseudonym], Bill Clinton was the prez ... not GW, McCain, Thurmond, or anyone else. And US troops were withdrawn in 1995. So, go back to your moveon.org website, or whatever leftist propaganda factory you purchase your indoctrination from, and reload. The rest of us will continue to refer to actual history.

So, what have we learned from Lebanon, Somalia, Iraq, and the world of Islam? --- Those places are infested with hopeless malefactors. Dickin%u2019 around with bloodthirsty savages, hoping our benevolent goodwill will make them like us, is merely futile delay of the inevitable. The only thing that will ever get them off our back is complete eradication. Because, obviously, Allah%u2019s cultists are never gonna quit. Someday, in the not too distant future, the Islamic Fascists will attack with WMD. When that day comes, owing to self-preservation, Western powers will have no other option but to annihilate not only states but also entire regions.

And this is why traditionalists know that our border must be secured, amnesty must be stopped, and the suicidal immigration policy set in 1965 must be reversed --- this is the only conceivable way of avoiding the aforementioned annihilation scenario.

[bluestardad]

I would love to see the AIPAC powered SUPPORT ISRAEL dead-brains address this analysis:

"Gen. William Odom discusses the %u201Cworst strategic disaster in American history,%u201D the war in Iraq: the view of most generals that the war is wrong, the failure of the politicians to see the consequences of their actions, the centrality of the neoconservatives and the Israel lobby in pushing for the Iraq invasion, the %u201Csurge,%u201D

www.antiwar.com/blog/2007/05
/10/gen-william-odom


Iraq war supporters are under the influence of AIPAC. AN ISRAELI POLITICAL LOBBY GROUP!

HERE ARE SOME OF AIPAC DEMOCRATIC SUPPORTERS! CONTACT THEM!

Levin, Carl- (D - MI)
269 RUSSELL SENATE OFFICE BUILDING WASHINGTON DC 20510
[phone]
Web Form: levin.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm

Steny Hoyer
http://hoyer.house.gov/contact/


READ AIPAC BRAG ABOUT THEIR INFLUENCE ON AMERICAN POLITICIANS!

http://www.aipac.org/for
ms/join_aipacClubs.htm

REMEMBER THE AMERICAN ENTERPRISE INSTITUTE IS RUN BY PRO ISRAELI GROUP! THEY ARE THE ONES WHO CAME UP WITH THIS SURGE IDEA!

EVEN AS AMERICAN MILITARY AID LANDS IN LEBANON, President Bush is funding Al Qaeda in Lebanon with funds from Iraq! http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/ar

ticles/070305fa_fact_hersh

50 years of American involvement in the Middle East ENOUGH it has nothing worth one more American Life!

THE STATUE OF LIBERTY STANDS IN NEW YORK HARBOR AND IS NOT KNEELING IN THE MIDDLE EAST!

fixitdamnit wrote:

"I am no fan of GW, but not because he is willing to take it to Allah%u2019s Psychopathic Murderers Inc. Judging from some of these posts, it is becoming more and more difficult to discern Libs from the terrorists."

Sure you're not a fan of GW Bush. I bet you've voted for him twice - and that makes you a bigger loser then that coke snortin', drunk driving, cowardly moron who didn't turn up for most of his own military service.

Now, why don't you please explain to me why the Republicans - and especially GW Bush - don't want to go after Bin Laden.

Explain to me why they have sold out America to Muslims so that they can make a few more dollars.

I bet you won't.

fixitdamnit wrote:

"We are bombing Somalia because you Blue Staters ran away from Somalia the first time. Ironically ... no ... stupidly, you easily confused and bewildered Dems took your revenge out on the wrong *** people ... i.e., Serbians ... for crying out loud. Apparently, the Serbs were fully aware of what took 9/11 to enlighten us about. Any Dem who votes to surrender ought to be promptly hung for treason ... and no need for a trial."

And what would you do with those who do business with Muslims?

ie - people like the Bush family Klan.

Maybe we should hang GW Bush for treason - he's no longer interested in going after Bin Laden - the real enemy.

That's treason as far as I'm concerned.

fixitdamnit wrote:

"Islamics and their so-called religion ought to be banned from the civilized world."

There's nothing civilized about you - perhaps you should do the world a favor.

Hint: Long walk, short cliff.

[feelfree1]

Re: "but that he had no information about casualties among the extremists."

...nor casualty counts among the civilians, no doubt.

Galavanting around the globe, 'linking' people to 'Al-Qaeda' on a whim, and bombing them from a nice, safe distance. What a cowardly and criminal policy!?

Women? Children? Hey, if they are cosorting with 'the extremists', then they deserve to be slaughtered, don't they?

What a disgrace.

[fixitdamnit]

We are bombing Somalia because you Blue Staters ran away from Somalia the first time. Ironically ... no ... stupidly, you easily confused and bewildered Dems took your revenge out on the wrong *** people ... i.e., Serbians ... for crying out loud. Apparently, the Serbs were fully aware of what took 9/11 to enlighten us about. Any Dem who votes to surrender ought to be promptly hung for treason ... and no need for a trial.

Islamics and their so-called religion ought to be banned from the civilized world. And considering what transpired today --- enough already! Today was the near culmination of another *** Dem suicidal PC F-Up --- this no doubt another *** child of Teddy and his 1965 bring-in-all-the-weirdos-cuckoos-and-wackos immigration act. Guess Teddy felt lonely.

[rhs648]

Who is "them" when you say "get them"? Any Muslim. Anyone that we happen to kill? Any country we don't like? Maybe "they" used this kind of logic when they attacked the world trade center. I noticed you felt no need to respond the part about the 70 innocent herdsmen we killed before. What justifies that? They are Muslims so we can kill them?

Posted by jabberwock11

Wake Up! The Muslim religion preaches Jihad and world domination by the Muslims. You can sugarcoat this anyway you want. The enemy (extremists) use men, women. and children as shields. They hide in hospitals ans mosques. Further, they blow-up their own people. Yes, get them wherever and whenever we can before they destroy us. As for the herdsmen, Muslims are resonsible for killing many thousands of their own. Seventy herdsmen is unfortunate but nothing compared to what the Muslims do to each other.

[bluestardad]

WHY IN THE WORLD ARE WE IN SOMALIA NOW?

RUBBER STAMP REPUBLICANS! SHOULD BE TRIED FOR TREASON!

http://www.aipac.org/forms/join_aipacClubs.htm

Here are a list of the Republican Senators up for Reelection in 08. Ask them how much AIPAC influences their vote on Iraq? Is their support for Israel more than their duty to the Americans living in their states?


Alexander, Lamar- (R - TN)
Allard, Wayne- (R - CO)
Chambliss, Saxby- (R - GA)
Cochran, Thad- (R - MS)
Coleman, Norm- (R - MN)
Collins, Susan M.- (R - ME)
Cornyn, John- (R - TX)
Craig, Larry E.- (R - ID)
Dole, Elizabeth- (R - NC)
Enzi, Michael B.- (R - WY)
Graham, Lindsey- (R - SC)
Hagel, Chuck- (R - NE)
Inhofe, James M.- (R - OK)
McConnell, Mitch- (R - KY)
Roberts, Pat- (R - KS)
Sessions, Jeff- (R - AL)
Smith, Gordon H.- (R - OR)
Stevens, Ted- (R - AK)
Sununu, John E.- (R - NH)
Warner, John- (R - VA)

[jabberwock11]

"And why not? Thje Muslim threat is spreading around the world. These people are intent on destroying life as we know it. Get them wherever and whenever we can. These people are a threat to our natrional security and our way of life."

Who is "them" when you say "get them"? Any Muslim. Anyone that we happen to kill? Any country we don't like? Maybe "they" used this kind of logic when they attacked the world trade center. I noticed you felt no need to respond the part about the 70 innocent herdsmen we killed before. What justifies that? They are Muslims so we can kill them?