As the Dust Clears, Assessing the Air Strikes in Somalia

By Tom Zeller Jr.

Tags: al qaeda, foreign affairs, osama bin laden, somalia, terrorism
Somalia Former President Abdi Kasim, right, and President Abdullahi Yusuf of Somalia speak to journalists after meeting in Mogadishu today. Mr. Yusuf said he welcomed U.S. air strikes aimed at suspected al Queda members in the country.

There is some speculation today that American air strikes in Somalia may have taken out the Qaeda operative suspected of masterminding the 1998 bombings of the American embassies Kenya and Tanzania that killed 225 people, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed.

CNN is reporting the Somali officials have confirmed the kill, although American officials have not. (We’ll keep you updated as the story develops.)

Meanwhile, eyewitnesses on the ground in Somalia were reporting a few sporadic attacks from the air today, although it remained unclear if American forces were involved, according to the BBC.

[ UPDATE Reuters reports from Mogadishu this morning that U.S. forces hit four locations in new air strikes, attributing the information to an unnamed Somali government source. “As we speak now, the area is being bombarded by the American air force,” the source told Reuters.

The piece added, however, that it was unclear how the Somali sources were able to distinguish between U.S. aircraft and Ethiopian aircraft, which are also conducting strikes.

Jeffrey Gettleman of The Times also reported later in the day about more violence in the capital as insurgents attacked a government barracks and soldiers responded by sealing off large swaths of the city. He also reported that United States officials had seen no evidence to support the claim that Mr. Mohammed had been killed in the American air strikes.]

All of this follows the only confirmed American air strikes, which came earlier this week and were aimed expressly at routing suspected elements of al Qaeda. As Mr. Gettleman and Mark Mazzetti reported this morning in The Times, before speculation regarding Mr. Mohammed’s identity emerged, there had been some early disagreement regarding the overall the impact of the operations:

American officials said terrorists from Al Qaeda had been the target of the strike, which they said had killed about a dozen people. But the officials acknowledged that the identities of the victims were still unknown.

Several residents of the area, in the southern part of the country, said dozens of civilians had been killed, and news of the attack immediately set off new waves of anti-American anger in Mogadishu, Somalia’s battle-scarred capital, where the United States has a complicated legacy.

One resident inevitably invoked “1993″ — the year of the ill-fated “Battle of Mogadishu,” when 18 American Army Rangers and Delta Forces were killed. (See our coverage from yesterday for more on this.)

Meanwhile, Shabelle Media Network, a print and broadcast outfit based in Merca, Somalia, reports that Somalia’s President, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, welcomed the American air strikes — even if he only learned of them by tuning in to the news like everyone else:

Mr. Yusuf said he only heard the news from local radios. “America has the right to hunt down and air bombard wherever those who were responsible for bombing its embassies in East Africa are staying or hiding”, he stressed.

WantedFazul Abullah Mohammed, who may have been killed in American air strikes in Somalia earlier this week, was one of the the F.B.I.’s most wanted terrorists.

Whether the United States can hope to have such welcoming hosts for all of its targeted bombing expeditions is an open question, but a separate story from Voice of America News, covering a Washington press conference with Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman, reminded everyone that it doesn’t matter: “Whitman would not respond directly when asked whether the Somali government was consulted before Monday’s operation. But he said “the global war on terror does not respect boundaries.”

Mr. Yusuf also indicated that the Somali government did not forgive the Islamist leaders:

Speaking to reporters he said, “You have taken our words wrong. The government only extended an amnesty to Islamist fighters. We have not offered any forgiveness to the ICU leaders. We are tracking tem down; they have brought foreign extremists and al-Qaeda in the country.”

As The Times reports today, the country’s Islamist movement managed to seize power in Somalia last year, ruling with “mixed success,” and “bringing a much desired semblance of peace but also a harsh brand of Islam.”

The piece continues:

Two weeks ago, that all changed after Ethiopian-led troops routed the Islamist forces and helped bring the Western-backed transitional government to Mogadishu. Ethiopian officials said the Islamists were a growing regional threat.

Shabelle.net reports today that skirmishes continued last night inside Mogadishu, as militias launched RPG and automatic weapon attacks on government posts.