[WCUSP] Fwd: Fw: US Strikes on al-Qa'ida Chiefs Kill Nomads

[yvonne simmons]

--- sdyck at hevanet.com wrote:

> From: <sdyck at hevanet.com>
> To: "Yvonne Simmons" <roweenayvonne at yahoo.com>,
>    "Dan Handelman" <iraq at pjw.info>,
>    "Ann & Bruce Huntwork"
> <huntworks at solh-salaam.com>
> Subject: Fw: US Strikes on al-Qa'ida Chiefs Kill
> Nomads
> Date: Sat, 13 Jan 2007 11:08:30 -0800
> 
> US Strikes on al-Qa'ida Chiefs Kill NomadsJanuary
> 13, 2007
> The Independent (UK)
> 
> US Strikes on al-Qa'ida Chiefs Kill Nomads
> Anne Penketh and Steve Bloomfield
> 
> 
> The herdsmen had gathered with their animals around
> large fires at night to ward off mosquitoes. But lit
> up by the flames, they became latest victims of
> America's war on terror.
> 
> It was their tragedy to be misidentified in a secret
> operation by special forces attempting to kill three
> top al-Qa'ida leaders in south-ern Somalia.
> 
> Oxfam yesterday confirmed at least 70 nomads in the
> Afmadow district near the border with Kenya had been
> killed. The nomads were bombed at night and during
> the day while searching for water sources.
> Meanwhile, the US ambassador to Kenya has
> acknowledged that the onslaught on Islamist fighters
> failed to kill any of the three prime targets wanted
> for their alleged role in the 1998 US embassy
> bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.
> 
> The wanted men are Fazul Abdullah Moham-med, Saleh
> Ali Saleh Nabhan and Abu Taha al-Sudani, who were
> all supposedly sheltered by the Union of Islamic
> Courts during its short reign in Mogadishu.
> 
> The operation, which opened a new front in
> Washington's anti-terror campaign, seems to have
> backfired spectacularly in the five days since it
> was launched. In addition to the scores of Somali
> civilians killed, the simmering civil war in the
> failed state has been rekindled.
> 
> Yesterday concern was mounting at the high number of
> civilian casualties, despite a claim by the US
> ambassador, Michael Ranneberger, that no civilians
> had been killed or injured and that only one attack
> had taken place. The UN's refugee agency, UNHCR,
> reported that an estimated 100 people were wounded
> in Monday's air strikes on the small fishing village
> of Ras Kamboni launched from the US military base in
> Djibouti after a mobile phone intercept.
> 
> The operation was only confirmed by the Pentagon a
> day after it was launched and it continued despite
> international protests and warnings that it risked
> being counterproductive.
> 
> Yesterday the Americans had boots on the ground for
> the first time since a 1993 mission backfired and
> led to a humiliating withdrawal from Somalia.
> According to The Washington Post, a small number of
> US military personnel are in southern Somalia trying
> to determine exactly who was killed in the raids by
> an AC-130 gunship.
> 
> Oxfam - which had received reports from its Somali
> partner organisations about the herdsmen's deaths -
> and Amnesty International have asked whether the the
> air strikes violated international law.
> 
> "Under international law, there is a duty to
> distinguish between military and civilian targets,"
> said Paul Smith-Lomas, Oxfam's regional director.
> "We are deeply concerned that this principle is not
> being adhered to, and that innocent people in
> Somalia are paying the price."
> 
> There is also concern that the attacks by American
> and Ethiopian gunships have fanned the country's
> civil war. Somalia's main warlords yesterday
> appeared to agree to disarm their militias and form
> a new national army. But as the warlords met with
> the Somali President, Abdullahi Yusuf, gun battles
> raged outside the presidential villa underlining the
> scale of the security problems.
> 
> Somalia has witnessed a fresh surge in violence this
> week as warlords have fought to regain old ground
> and Islamists have attacked government forces and
> their allies. The Ethiopian military, acting in
> support of the US-backed transitional government in
> Somalia, had only recently routed the Islamists from
> the capital.
> 
> Yesterday, fighting in Mogadishu claimed the lives
> of at least six militia men after a clash with
> troops. The gun battle was believed to have been
> sparked by an argument over a parking space.
> 
> 
> 



 
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