Witnesses: Foreign troops kill 2 in Somali town

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Witnesses: Foreign troops kill 2 in Somali town
SOMALIA - 14 SEPTEMBER 2009

MOGADISHU, Somalia – Foreign troops in helicopters strafed a car Monday in a Somali town controlled by Islamist insurgents, killing two men and wounding two who were then captured and flown away, witnesses said. The commando-style action comes amid growing fears that al-Qaida is gaining a foothold in this lawless nation.

It was not clear who was behind the attack in a village near Barawe. Foreign nations have conducted airstrikes in the past to capture or kill suspected militants. Last year, U.S. missiles killed reputed al-Qaida commander Aden Hashi Ayro — the first major success after a string of U.S. military attacks in 2008.

Many experts fear Somalia is becoming a haven for al-Qaida, a place for terrorists to train and gather strength — much like Afghanistan in the 1990s. The U.N.-backed government, with support from African Union peacekeepers, holds only a few blocks of Mogadishu, the war-ravaged capital.

Like much of Somalia, Barawe and its surrounding villages are controlled by the militant group al-Shabab, which the U.S. accuses of having ties to al-Qaida. Al-Shabab, which has foreign fighters in its ranks, seeks to overthrow the government and impose a strict form of Islam in Somalia.

Eyewitness Abdi Ahmed said six helicopters buzzed the village before two of the aircraft opened fire. After the helicopters fired, white foreign soldiers in military fatigues got out and left with the two wounded men.

"There was only a burning vehicle and two dead bodies lying beside it," said Mohamed Ali Aden, a bus driver who drove past the burnt-out car minutes after the attack, some 155 miles (250 kilometers) south of Mogadishu.

Somalia's weak government has very few resources and does not have helicopters or other modern equipment. One witness, Dahir Ahmed, said the helicopters took off from a warship flying a French flag, but that could not be confirmed.

French military spokesman Christophe Prazuck denied the attack was a French operation.

"They are not French helicopters," he said.

France has previously launched commando raids to rescue French nationals. The U.S. government, haunted by a deadly 1993 U.S. military assault in Mogadishu chronicled in "Black Hawk Down," is trying to neutralize the growing terrorist threat without sending in troops.

In Washington, Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman would not comment on the operation or on any potential U.S. involvement.

Somalia has been ravaged by violence and anarchy since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other. A moderate Islamist was elected president in January in hopes that he could unite the country's feuding factions, but the violence has continued unabated.

Mogadishu sees near-daily battles between government and insurgent forces. Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed.

Somalia's lawlessness also has allowed piracy to flourish off its coast, making the Gulf of Aden one of the most dangerous waterways in the world.




Source: Associated Press

 

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Foreign troops raid south Somalia village: witnesses
SOMALIA - 14 SEPTEMBER 2009

MOGADISHU – Foreign military forces onboard four helicopters staged a raid on a village in southern Somalia on Monday, opening fire on a vehicle and killing people inside, elders and witnesses said.

The attack occurred in the small village of Erile, around 200 kilometres (120 miles) south of the capital Mogadishu, shortly after 1:30 pm (1030 GMT), the sources said.

Al Qaeda-inspired extremists known as the Shebab control the area and are believed to be holding a French agent kidnapped in July, but France denied local claims that its forces were involved in the raid.

"There was a military operation carried out by four foreign choppers in Erile village. A car was destroyed, we are also hearing that some of the vehicle's passengers were taken on the choppers," Abdinasir Mohamed Adan, an elder from the nearby village of Barawe, told AFP by phone.

Several local witnesses gave the same information, adding that some of the passengers in the targeted vehicle were killed.

A local Islamist commander who asked to remain anonymous claimed that the helicopters were French.

"We are getting information that French army gunships attacked a car, destroying it completely and taking some of the passengers. We are waiting for some more details," the Shebab official told AFP.

French military headquarters in Paris denied its forces were involved in the raid.

"There was no French operation," said admiral Christophe Prazuck, spokesman for the armed forces' general staff.

The spokesman said the French forces present in the region were operating within the framework of the European Union anti-piracy force Atalanta and that "they did not intervene over Somali territory."

The Shebab are believed to be holding the agent and are also suspected of involvement in the kidnapping on the Kenyan border of three humanitarian workers a few days later.

Some officials in the area where the strike took place Monday said several foreign fighters were among the passengers of the targeted vehicle.

The Shebab have also provided shelter to several senior Al-Qaeda operatives wanted over deadly attacks on Israeli targets in Mombasa in 2002 and the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.

Topping the US wanted list are Fazul Abdullah, a Comoran national who escaped a Kenyan raid last year and is believed to have strong ties with the Shebab.

One of his presumed accomplices in the 2002 Mombasa attacks who is also believed to be hiding in Somalia is Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a Kenyan citizen.

Israel and the United States, whose top diplomats recently visited the region, have in recent years complained of the slow progress in efforts to hunt down key suspects in the 1998 and 2002 attacks.


Source: AFP

 

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Helicopter raid kills wanted militant in Somalia
SOMALIA - 14 SEPTEMBER 2009

* Mombasa bombing suspect dead, government source says

* Says Somali insurgents now in disarray

* France denies involvement


MOGADISHU, Sept 14 - Suspected foreign commandos in helicopters attacked a car in southern Somalia on Monday and killed one of the region's most wanted militants, witnesses and a Somali government source said.

Kenya-born Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, 28, was wanted over a hotel bombing and simultaneous, but botched, missile attack on an Israeli airliner leaving Kenya's Mombasa airport in 2002.

A senior Somali government source in Mogadishu told Reuters the fugitive had been riding in a car with other Islamist insurgents when they were attacked near Roobow village in Barawe District, some 250 km (155 miles) south of the capital.

"Nabhan and four other top foreign commanders of militant groups were killed in the raid," the source said.

"These young fighters do not have the same skills as their colleagues in Afghanistan or elsewhere when it comes to foreign airstrikes," the government source added.

"They are in confusion now. I hope the world takes action."

Local man Bashir Abdi said the foreign commandos who carried out the raid were wearing French flags on the shoulders of their uniforms. But a spokesman for the French Defence Ministry, Christophe Prazuck, denied any French soldiers were involved.

"We don't have any military presence in that region ... there are no forces in that territory," Prazuck said in Paris.

Western security agencies say the failed Horn of Africa state has become a safe haven for militants, including foreign jihadists, who use it to plot attacks in the region and beyond.

Nabhan is believed to have owned the truck used in the 2002 bombing of an Israeli-owned beach hotel in Kenya that killed 15 people. He is then thought to have fled to Somalia.

AL QAEDA SUSPECTS

The United States says another leading al Qaeda suspect who may be in Somalia, Sudanese explosives expert Abu Talha al-Sudani, is believed to have orchestrated the Mombasa attack.

Several residents and insurgent sources in Barawe said Nabhan was among those killed in Monday's operation, but they declined to be named for fear of reprisals.

French forces have launched commando raids in Somalia in the past to rescue French nationals held by rebels and pirates. Paris maintains a large military base in neighbouring Djibouti.

Last month, one of two French security advisers kidnapped by Somali insurgents in July managed to escape from his captors and fled to the presidential palace in Mogadishu. [ID:nLQ103641]

Neither the Somali government nor rebels have helicopters.

The U.S. military has also launched airstrikes inside Somalia, targeting individuals Washington blames for the bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1988.

In May last year, U.S. war planes killed the then-leader of al Shabaab and al Qaeda's top man in the country, Afghan-trained Aden Hashi Ayro, in an attack on the central town of Dusamareb.

Under Ayro, al Shabaab had adopted Iraq-style tactics, including assassinations, roadside bombs and suicide bombings.

Somalia's fragile U.N.-backed government faces a stubborn insurgency by al Shabaab and others. The United States accuses al Shabaab of being al Qaeda's proxy in the lawless country.

Somali President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's administration controls only small parts of the nation's drought-ridden region and a few districts of the bullet-scarred coastal capital.

Violence has killed more than 18,000 Somalis since the start of 2007 and driven another 1.5 million from their homes.

That has triggered one of the world's worst aid emergencies, with the number of people needing help leaping 17.5 percent in a year to 3.76 million or half the population.

Source: Reuters


Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan

 

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***UPDATE***

U.S. behind attack on militant in Somalia-US sources
SOMALIA - 14 SEPTEMBER 2009

WASHINGTON, Sept 14 - Helicopter-borne U.S. special forces attacked a car in southern Somalia on Monday and killed one of the region's most wanted militants, U.S. sources familiar with the operation said.

Kenya-born Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, 28, was wanted over a hotel bombing and a botched missile attack on an Israeli airliner leaving Kenya's Mombasa airport in 2002.

The U.S. sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the United States believed that Nabhan was killed in the attack and that his body had been taken into U.S. custody.

At least one U.S. helicopter was involved in the operation, the sources said.

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman declined to comment "on any alleged operation in Somalia."


Source: Reuters

 

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U.S. Kills Top Qaeda Leader in Southern Somalia
SOMALIA - 14 SEPTEMBER 2009

Jeffrey Gettleman reported from Nairobi and Eric Schmitt from Washington. Mohamed Ibrahim contributed to the report from Mogadishu, Somalia

American commandos killed one of the most wanted Islamic militants in Africa in a daylight raid in southern Somalia Monday, according to American and Somali officials, an indication of the Obama administration’s willingness to use force against Al Qaeda’s growing influence in the region.

Western intelligence agents have described the militant, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, as the ringleader of an Al Qaeda cell in Kenya responsible for the bombing of an Israeli hotel on the Kenyan coast in 2002. Mr. Nabhan may have also played a role in the attacks on two American embassies in East Africa in 1998.

American military forces have been hunting him for years, and on Monday, at around 1 p.m., Somali villagers near the town of Baraawe said four military helicopters suddenly materialized over the horizon and shot at two trucks rumbling through the desert.

The two trucks were carrying leaders of the Shabab, an Islamist extremist group fighting to overthrow Somalia’s weak but internationally-recognized government. The Shabab work hand-in-hand with foreign terrorists, according to Western and Somali intelligence agents, and in the past few months, as the battle for control of Somalia has intensified, the group seems to be drawing increasingly close to Al Qaeda.

American officials on Monday provided few details but confirmed that Special Operations forces commandos, operating from a nearby American warship, participated in the helicopter raid.

Under the Bush administration, the American military used long-range Tomahawk cruise missiles and AC-130 gunships to carry out strikes against terror suspects in Somalia. One American adviser said the decision to use commandos and not long-range missiles in this case may reflect a shift by the Obama administration to go to greater lengths to avoid civilian deaths. In the past, many Somali villagers have been killed by American cruise missiles.

But urgency was a major, if not overriding, factor as well. The adviser said the Special Operations forces had to act quickly after receiving what they considered reliable information about Mr. Nabhan’s location on Monday. That may explain why they conducted the operation in daylight, putting them at greater risk.

Despite the danger, the strategy also ensured that the troops could more accurately identify their target, attack it and confirm the deaths afterward. “This approach was, ‘Let’s do it very quickly, very swiftly and confirm he’s gone,’” the adviser said.

Mr. Nabhan played an increasingly important role as a senior instructor for new militant recruits, including some Americans, as well as a liaison to senior Qaeda leaders in Pakistan, the senior American adviser said.

“This is very significant because it takes away a person who’s been a main conduit between the East Africa extremists and big Al Qaeda,” said the adviser, who like several United States officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the classified commando forces that carried out the mission.

The helicopters, either with sniper bullets or air-to-surface missiles, quickly disabled the trucks, according to villagers in the area, and several of the Shabab fighters tried to fire back. Shabab leaders said that six foreign fighters, including Mr. Nabhan, were quickly killed, along with three Somali Shabab.

“We are very upset, very upset,” said a Shabab official from the town of Merka, near where the raid happened. “This is a big loss for us.”

Ahmed Gaabow, a resident of the area, said that the helicopters then landed and retrieved the bodies, apparently for identification purposes.

Mr. Nabhan, who was thought to be around 30 years old and of Yemeni descent, was born in Mombasa, on Kenya’s coast. American intelligence sources have said that he masterminded the suicide bombing of the Paradise hotel in Mombasa, which killed 11 Kenyans and 3 Israelis and wounded dozens of others.

The Paradise was a popular Israeli hang-out, complete with a kosher restaurant and synagogue. That same day, Nov. 28, 2002, a group of assailants fired several missiles at an Israeli passenger jet at the Mombasa airport, narrowly missing it. Intelligence agents said Mr. Nabhan helped fire the missiles.

Mr. Nabhan was one of the handful of Al Qaeda terrorists hiding out in Somalia for years, taking advantage of the country’s chaos to elude the team of international agents pursuing them. Mr. Nabhan is believed to be a close associate of Fazul Abdullah Mohamed, Al Qaeda’s East Africa operations chief, who helped organize the bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, which killed more than 200 people. American military forces have tried to kill Mr. Nabhan and Mr. Mohamed with air strikes several times in the recent years.

The Barawe area, like much of southern Somalia, is controlled by the Shabab, who are not widely popular among Somalis but are known for their fierce fighting skills and passion for their cause. There is increasing evidence that foreign jihadists, like Mr. Nabhan, are leading Somali Shabab and training them in suicide bombs.

American officials said Mr. Nabhan’s death is likely to send other terrorist suspects scurrying for cover. When they resurface, there may be killings of suspected informants, sowing further turmoil in their ranks, American officials said.


Source: The New York Times


Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, reportedly killed in Somalia by U.S. Special Operations forces commandos