More US Somalia Strikes, World Angry
IslamOnline.net & News Agencies
MOGADISHU Despite mounting international criticism, US warplanes conducted
more air strikes in southern Somalia on Wednesday, January 10, while the Somali
deputy prime minister invited American ground troops into the Horn of Africa
country.
"As we speak now, the area is being bombarded by the American air force," A
Somalia government source told Reuters Wednesday.
American aircraft hit an area close to Ras Kamboni, a coastal village near
the Kenyan border where many fleeing fighters of the Supreme Islamic Courts of
Somalia (SICS) are believed to be holed up.
The source said the Americans hit the four areas of Hayo, Garer, Bankajirow
and Badmadowe.
Residents also confirmed new US air strikes near the southern towns of Badade
and Afmadow.
"Elders in Badade and Afmadow who made a radio contact with us confirmed
there was an American air strike in the same area today," Yusuf Ismail Aden, a
resident of Kismayo, told AFP in Mogadishu by phone.
"They said they could hear over-flights in the morning," he added.
A Somali clan elder also reported a US air strike on Tuesday, but that was
not confirmed by other sources.
This came a few hours after the first US attack in Somalia since 1994 when an
AC-130 gunship hit positions in southern Somalia killing more than 19 civilians.
The Pentagon claimed the attack targeted Al-Qaeda operatives linked to the
1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
Washington claims the SICS, routed of Mogadishu and other strongholds across
Somalia by Ethiopian troops, had provided shelter to a handful of Al-Qaeda
members.
The SICS has repeatedly denied Al-Qaeda links, dismissing the charge as a
pretext to justify foreign intervention in Somalia.
US Revenge
Many Somalis believe the US is attacking their country to
revenge its previous military failures in the Horn of Africa state.
"Theyre just trying to get revenge for what we did to them in 1993," Deeq
Salad Mursel, a taxi driver, told The New York Times Wednesday.
Washington withdrew troops in the early 1990s from the UN-backed Operation
Restore Hope stabilization mission after suffering heavy losses in what was
later dramatized in a book and a film "Black Hawk Down."
A botched US rapid raid by a helicopter to snatch Somali warlord Mohamed
Farah Aidid led to a huge gunbattle in Mogadishu in which hundreds of Somalis
and 18 US soldiers were killed and mutilated.
A further 18 US troops were killed in Somalia in numerous incidents involving
landmines, ambushes and accidents.
The US air strikes in Somalia have drawn criticism from both the United
Nations and European Union.
"The secretary-general is concerned about the new dimension this kind of
action could introduce to the conflict and the possible escalation of
hostilities that may result," said chief UN spokeswoman Michele Montas.
The European Union has also blasted the US military intervention in the
Somali conflict.
"Any incident of this kind is not helpful in the long term," said Amadeu
Altafaj, spokesman for EU Development Commissioner Louis Michel.
Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema also denounced the US attacks,
saying Rome opposed "unilateral initiatives that could spark new tensions in an
area that is already very destabilized".
Norway, a member of the international contact group on Somalia, said
Washington's explanation of its conduct in Somalia was "not sufficient" and
said the fight against terrorism should be fought in a courtroom and not with
military hardware.
Invitation
Deputy Premier and Interior Minister in the interim Ethiopia-backed Somali
government, Mohamed Aideed, invited direct US intervention in the war-torn
country.
Aideed called for deploying US ground troops in Somalia to hunt down what he
said Al-Qaeda operatives, reported the Doha-based Al-Jazeera news television.
Experts ruled out US approval to deploy ground troops in the Horn of Africa
country but believe the call could be seized on by the Americans to intensify
air strikes in southern Somalia.
US and French military sources have already reported that US Special Forces
were working with Ethiopian troops on the ground in operations inside Somalia,
reported Reuters.
The US set up a taskforce in Djibouti in 2002 to serve as a major hub for US
counter-terrorism training and operations.
Members of the 1,800-member Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa have
also trained with troops in Ethiopia, and US ships patrol the nearby Gulf of
Aden, according to Pentagon documents.
Somalia's interim President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed was quick to defend
Tuesday's US air strikes.
"The Americans had a right to carry out the air strikes on some Al-Qaeda
members."
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