U.S. Strikes Al-Qaeda In Somalia Again

The Washington Post reported January 24^th that a United States Air Force AC-130 gunship attacked suspected al-Qaeda members in southern Somalia on January 22^nd. The attack marks the second strike in Somalia this month.

According to the report, there was no information immediately available on what specific targets were hit or what the results of the strike were. The Post says that reports of the strike occurred on the same day that Ethiopian military forces were beginning to withdraw from the Somali capital of Mogadishu.

The report quoted Somali transitional government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari as saying that it could take several weeks for Ethiopia to complete its departure and that Ethiopian military forces would remain on their side of the border. Up to this point, the Ethiopian military has been in Mogadishu to help ensure the success of the Somali transitional government.

The Post says that without support from the Ethiopian military, Somali government officials are worried about a possible resurgence of Islamic fighters, who had previously established control of the country, while a peacekeeping force from the African Union is assembled.

According to the report, "Details of a proposal to send in a peacekeeping force of at least 8,000 troops from other African countries are under negotiation, and many analysts doubt that that number can be mustered. Dinari said an initial force of about 1,000 soldiers from Uganda will probably arrive next week, and others from South Africa, Malawi and Nigeria will follow. The United States has promised airlift and logistics support."

The Post went on to say that officials from the European Union had tied funding for the peacekeepers to negotiations between the Somali government and the deposed leaders of the Islamic Courts Union. According to the report those leaders are considered "...crucial to preventing a full-scale insurgency."

Somali governmental spokesman Dinari is quoted as saying that the demand by the European Union "gives the Islamic fighters a signal" to continue their resistance and that the demand has angered Somali government officials.

"The elements of the Islamists will come back," Hassan Abdi Aden is quoted as saying. "The warlords are already in Mogadishu. The clan fighting will start again. All this is something that can happen in the near future."

Information for this article was obtained from "U.S. Stages 2^nd Airstrike in Somalia; Ethiopians Leaving Capital," by Karen De Young and Stephanie McCrummen, Washington Post Foreign Service, published January 24, 2007 in the Washington Post.