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AQ Leader Killed in Somalia

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  • AQ Leader Killed in Somalia

    There was something about this buried in an article Merlin posted a while back, but I think it is worth highlighting. Can't help thinking it would have been trumpeted as proof of 'resolve in the war against terror' by supporters of the previous administration.


    Al-Qaeda in Somalia

    The long arm of America

    Sep 17th 2009 | NAIROBI

    From The Economist print edition

    In a foray into Somalia, American special forces claim to hit a prize target

    IN THE past few years America has occasionally attacked suspected jihadist enemies lurking in the ungovernable badlands of Somalia. Two years ago it killed Abu Talha al-Sudani, a Sudanese explosives expert linked to al-Qaeda, who was suspected of helping to blow up the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. More recently American missiles have rained down on the footsoldiers of Somalia’s Shabab (“Youth”) militia, an Islamist group that looks to al-Qaeda for inspiration and material support and which has overrun swathes of Somalia. This week America made its most brazen and daring foray into Somalia since the early 1990s, reportedly killing Saleh Ali Nabhan, a Kenyan of Yemeni descent, who had been suspected of an al-Qaeda attack on a hotel in the Kenyan port of Mombasa in 2002.

    The American commandos flew in daylight in helicopters from a naval ship off Somalia’s coast, attacking Mr Nabhan and a score of other foreign and Somali fighters as they drove in two lorries across the desert. Mr Nabhan’s body was zipped up with body parts of other fighters and taken to a freezer on the ship for DNA analysis.

    Barack Obama’s administration evidently decided that the risk of putting American soldiers on the ground in Somalia, albeit briefly, was worth taking. Specialists working for a unit that collects the DNA of suspected terrorists had argued that previous missile attacks on targets in Somalia ordered by George Bush’s administration had so mangled those killed that it was hard to identify the bodies after the event. Moreover, missile attacks invariably kill civilians as well as jihadists, making it easier for the Shabab to rally locals to their banner.

    It is uncertain whether Mr Nabhan was, as the Americans claim, an actual link between the Shabab and al-Qaeda in Pakistan. But the manner of the raid and the quality of the intelligence that pinpointed him may dent the Shabab’s aura of invincibility. In return, Somalia’s jihadists may try to exact revenge. As they scuttle into the mangrove swamps and the desert, their leaders promise to hit back at Western targets. A French security agent and other foreigners held hostage by the Shabab may be at risk. And some experts fear the Shabab may try to carry out suicide-attacks in Kenya or Ethiopia, where the governments continue to let the Americans use their territory for counter-terrorism.
    Al-Qaeda in Somalia: The long arm of America | The Economist
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  • #2
    Good call by Obama. Not doubt the last administration would have just blasted them from the air.

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