so much for intelligence ....

No top Al-Qaeda suspects killed in Somali air strike, says US official
11/01/2007

NAIROBI (AFP) - A US airstrike in Somalia killed "eight to 10" alleged Al-Qaeda affiliates, but none of the three top militants sought by the United States in the lawless nation, a senior US official has said. ...

Clan elders and residents in the bombed region close to the Kenyan border claimed Thursday that about 100 civilians were killed in numerous airstrikes on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. ...


No top Al-Qaeda suspects killed in Somali air strike, says US official
11/01/2007

NAIROBI (AFP) - A US airstrike in Somalia killed "eight to 10" alleged Al-Qaeda affiliates, but none of the three top militants sought by the United States in the lawless nation, a senior US official has said.

"The three high-value targets are still of intense interest to us as well as other Al-Qaeda affiliates," the official said Thursday in the Kenyan capital Nairobi, on condition of anonymity.

The official said there had been only one US airstrike, on Monday, that the three suspects had not been "primary targets" of the raid and that, despite reports to the contrary, it resulted in no civilian casualties.

"They were not the primary targets. One of the group (that was hit) was a significant Al-Qaeda affiliated figure," the official said, refusing to comment on whether the "significant figure" had been killed.

The Pentagon has said the operation was prompted by "credible intelligence" that the "principal Al-Qaeda leadership" in east Africa was in the area that was hit by an AC-130 gunship, a fixed-wing aircraft with rapid firing guns.

"It was a targeted strike at a group of Al-Qaeda-connected or Al-Qaeda-affiliated people," the US official said. "There were a number of people killed ... but it's too early to say who those people were."

Clan elders and residents in the bombed region close to the Kenyan border claimed Thursday that about 100 civilians were killed in numerous airstrikes on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

"We have sent a team to assess the casualties (and) they have confirmed more than 100 people killed," said Sheikh Abdullahi Ali Malabon, an elder in the targeted district of Afmadow.

"Many others were wounded but we don't have an exact number," he told AFP.

The US official said it was "possible" reported civilian casualties resulted from aerial attacks launched by Ethiopian forces that helped the weak Somali government defeat powerful Islamists accused of harboring Al-Qaeda members.

Among the so-called "high value" Al-Qaeda militants the United States believes are in Somalia are Comoran Fazul Abdullah Mohammed and Kenyan Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, whom it blames for the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 people, mostly Africans.

The other is Abu Taha al-Sudani, a Sudanese alleged to be an explosives expert close to Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden and whom the Somali government claimed led Islamist fighters in recent battles.


"Fazul is not dead," the US official said, contradicting reports on Wednesday that he specifically had been killed in the raid and confirming comments made earlier to the BBC Somali service by the US ambassador to Kenya.

"We have a variety of assets in the area (and) we have reason to believe that he is not dead," the official said.

He declined to discuss what those assets were apart from four US naval ships in international waters in the Indian Ocean off the Somali coast but denied reports there were US special forces now on the ground in Somalia.

"No," he replied, when asked about the presence of such US soldiers, "not that I am aware of (and) I would be aware."

The official said US pursuit of Al-Qaeda would go on in the lawless African nation, where suspects were believed to be sheltered by the Islamist movement routed by Somali government fighters backed by Ethiopian forces.

"This specific incident is over, but what we are doing in Somalia is not over," he said. "We are still in pursuit. I think it is possible the three men are still there."

The official would not discuss casualty figures for Monday's US raid given by Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, but said "eight to ten" Al-Qaeda-affiliated suspects had been killed.

Meles said Wednesday that eight "terrorists" were killed, five wounded and captured in the strike and that seven other of the 20 members in the targeted group appeared to have escaped.

He said the prisoners were in the custody of Ethiopian forces that arrived at the scene shortly after the US attack and that some of the dead bodies had been removed for DNA identification.

The US official declined to discuss Meles' claim of prisoners, the DNA testing or say if Washington believed any of those targetted in the raid had gotten away.

He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the matter, but said he had approval from Washington to discuss it because of mis- and disinformation reported by the international media.

"The amount of misinformation out there is of serious concern to us," he said referring to reports of major casualties and more than one US strike in the area.