Has anyone been keeping track of US offensive military activity outside the theatres of Afghanistan and Iraq? I thought about it recently upon finding a news item -- buried deep inside one of the free tube papers -- of another, the fifth (!) US air strike on targets inside Somalia in the past 18 months.
Not so long ago, staging an attack on (or in) a foreign country required congressional approval. In fact, not so long ago the US took the moral high ground and declared presidential assassination orders illegal. It was a strong message to send to the world, drawing a line under the Vietnam war and assassination attemps on Castro. It was a message that served to underpin America's position as a beacon of freedom and good intentions. That sure does seem a long time ago now...
Who am I to doubt the veracity of US intelligence agencies tracking high-value terrorist targets around the world? But even so, I wonder whether the ol' checks and balances shouldn't apply here too. While not as duplicitous as the US bombing of Laos and Cambodia during the Vietnam war, these attacks get scant attention from the media. I can't assess their true value in the war on terror, but it's clear that they have a disproportionately galvanising effect on Islamic opinion against America. But maybe because Somalia is a failed state, it doesn't matter, or at least no one cares...
I am no doubt a cynic, and it's possible that these targets will turn out to be worthwhile, but at the moment it doesn't seem like anyone is actually keeping track.
So here's a quick tally to date:
May 1, 2008: precision-guided missiles fired from an offshore location hit the town of Dusamareb and destroyed the home of Aden Hashi Ayro, the military leader of Somali militia al-Shabab, which controls most of the country. Various accounts put the death toll at between 10 and 30. The US Central Command called him a "known al-Qaeda leader". The BBC describes al-Shahab thus:
Considered a terrorist group by the US, al-Shabab began as the youth and military wing of the Somali Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which controlled much of southern and central Somalia in 2006.
When, at the end of that year, the UIC was driven from power by Ethiopian troops supporting the country's transitional government, al-Shabab melted away into remote and distant parts of the country.
It has since re-emerged as a radicalised group of young fighters, who have been conducting an insurgency against the government and its Ethiopian allies, and attacking African Union peacekeepers.
The US has said al-Shabab is part of the al-Qaeda network, although analysts say it is impossible to accurately establish those links. Al-Shabab's leaders insist it is a purely Somali movement.
March 3, 2008: two Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from a US Navy submarine hit a house in Dhoble (Dobley), southern Somalia, possibly killing six people, variously described as "known al-Qaeda terrorists" (Pentagon spokesman) and "Islamist politicians" (local district commander). The owner of the house claims his daughter and 4 cows were killed. Kenyan sources later said that the real target -- Kenyan Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, wanted in connection with the 1998 US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam -- had left the scene shortly before the attack.
June 21, 2007: a US Navy ship fired missiles at "Islamist fighters and foreign jihadists" in the mountains of northern Puntland. Somali sources claimed 6 people were killed, including one carrying a British passport and one an American passport, alongside a Swede and a Yemenite.
January 8, 2007: twice in a day, a US AC-130 gunship fired on cornered Islamists fleeing from Ethiopian and Somalian troops. Apparently a small contingent of US Special Forces followed the bombings to investigate the outcome.
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