British May Be Among Dead In Somalia'
The Telegraph (UK) ^| 1-9-2007 | Mike Pflanz
British 'may be among dead in Somalia'
By Mike Pflanz in Nairobi
Last Updated: 5:17pm GMT 09/01/2007
British passport holders may be among the "many" people killed in two US air attacks on suspected extremist positions in southern Somalia, it emerged today.
Islamists have been driven from power in Somalia Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's prime minister, said that his troops inside Somalia had detained many injured foreign fighters, some claiming to be British, since they began their offensive against the Islamists on Dec 24.
Many other such fighters who had so far escaped may have been killed in yesterday's double air attack by the US military on the last strongholds of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), who were believed to be harbouring al-Qa'eda terrorists.
Addis Ababa and Somalia's transitional government, now in control of its country after wiping out the ICU, have claimed foreigners flocked to the Horn of Africa answering the Islamists' call to fight a jihad against Ethiopia.
"Many international terrorists are dead in Somalia,'' Mr Meles told today's edition of the French newspaper, Le Monde. "Photographs have been taken and passports from different countries have been collected. The Kenyans are holding Eritrean and Canadian passport holders. We have injured people coming from Yemen, Pakistan, Sudan, the United Kingdom.''
Officials at the British embassy in Addis Ababa said they were looking into the allegations. Many Somalis hold dual citizenship after fleeing the insecurity in their country since the last government collapsed in 1991.
A spokesman at the Foreign Office told The Daily Telegraph that she could not confirm the reports of British passport holders being involved, but said that the Government was discussing the matter with Ethiopian and Somali authorities.
Reports from Somalia have accused the Ethiopians of fabricating evidence pointing to the nationalities of the Islamist forces they have captured or killed. One of Ethiopia's main justifications for going to war in Somalia, backed by the US, was that the Islamists rallying cry for fighters to join a jihad threatened its own national security.
No independent verification of Mr Zenawi's claims was immediately available.
The US military's two air attacks on suspected al-Qa'eda agents yesterday was the first direct US intervention in the country since the Black Hawk Down debacle in 1993.
An AC-130 warplane armed with state-of-the-art tracking sensors and heavy cannons capable of firing more than 1,800 rounds a minute hit two villages in southern Somalia.
Witnesses reported "many dead" following the first attack in Ras Kamboni, close to Somalia's border with Kenya.
It was unclear whether the casualties in included Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan or Abu Taha al-Sudani. They are believed to be behind the 1998 al-Qa'eda-linked bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, when more than 250 people were killed after two coordinated truck blasts.
Fazul Mohammed is also suspected of orchestrating a 2002 suicide attack on a Kenyan hotel popular with Israelis, and the failed attempt to down a tourist airliner heading for Tel Aviv as it climbed out of an airport on Kenya's coast.
The US, Ethiopia and Somalia's interim government claim that the three men were being sheltered by the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which controlled much of the country until they were driven from power last week.
A separate attack believed to have been carried out by the same US aircraft hit a remote settlement near Afmadow town, west of Ras Kamboni, reportedly killing four civilians.
The US Navy Fifth Fleet confirmed today that it had repositioned the USS Dwight D Eisenhower, an aircraft carrier, from the Arabian Sea to join other US warships patrolling the Indian Ocean off Somalia.
Jets from the carrier were today already carrying out reconnaissance missions above Somalia, the US Navy said, adding that the deployment was "in case the situation demands air power". The Pentagon has confirmed the strike took place, but today refused to say whether it was successful.
The Telegraph (UK) ^| 1-9-2007 | Mike Pflanz
British 'may be among dead in Somalia'
By Mike Pflanz in Nairobi
Last Updated: 5:17pm GMT 09/01/2007
British passport holders may be among the "many" people killed in two US air attacks on suspected extremist positions in southern Somalia, it emerged today.
Islamists have been driven from power in Somalia Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's prime minister, said that his troops inside Somalia had detained many injured foreign fighters, some claiming to be British, since they began their offensive against the Islamists on Dec 24.
Many other such fighters who had so far escaped may have been killed in yesterday's double air attack by the US military on the last strongholds of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), who were believed to be harbouring al-Qa'eda terrorists.
Addis Ababa and Somalia's transitional government, now in control of its country after wiping out the ICU, have claimed foreigners flocked to the Horn of Africa answering the Islamists' call to fight a jihad against Ethiopia.
"Many international terrorists are dead in Somalia,'' Mr Meles told today's edition of the French newspaper, Le Monde. "Photographs have been taken and passports from different countries have been collected. The Kenyans are holding Eritrean and Canadian passport holders. We have injured people coming from Yemen, Pakistan, Sudan, the United Kingdom.''
Officials at the British embassy in Addis Ababa said they were looking into the allegations. Many Somalis hold dual citizenship after fleeing the insecurity in their country since the last government collapsed in 1991.
A spokesman at the Foreign Office told The Daily Telegraph that she could not confirm the reports of British passport holders being involved, but said that the Government was discussing the matter with Ethiopian and Somali authorities.
Reports from Somalia have accused the Ethiopians of fabricating evidence pointing to the nationalities of the Islamist forces they have captured or killed. One of Ethiopia's main justifications for going to war in Somalia, backed by the US, was that the Islamists rallying cry for fighters to join a jihad threatened its own national security.
No independent verification of Mr Zenawi's claims was immediately available.
The US military's two air attacks on suspected al-Qa'eda agents yesterday was the first direct US intervention in the country since the Black Hawk Down debacle in 1993.
An AC-130 warplane armed with state-of-the-art tracking sensors and heavy cannons capable of firing more than 1,800 rounds a minute hit two villages in southern Somalia.
Witnesses reported "many dead" following the first attack in Ras Kamboni, close to Somalia's border with Kenya.
It was unclear whether the casualties in included Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan or Abu Taha al-Sudani. They are believed to be behind the 1998 al-Qa'eda-linked bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, when more than 250 people were killed after two coordinated truck blasts.
Fazul Mohammed is also suspected of orchestrating a 2002 suicide attack on a Kenyan hotel popular with Israelis, and the failed attempt to down a tourist airliner heading for Tel Aviv as it climbed out of an airport on Kenya's coast.
The US, Ethiopia and Somalia's interim government claim that the three men were being sheltered by the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which controlled much of the country until they were driven from power last week.
A separate attack believed to have been carried out by the same US aircraft hit a remote settlement near Afmadow town, west of Ras Kamboni, reportedly killing four civilians.
The US Navy Fifth Fleet confirmed today that it had repositioned the USS Dwight D Eisenhower, an aircraft carrier, from the Arabian Sea to join other US warships patrolling the Indian Ocean off Somalia.
Jets from the carrier were today already carrying out reconnaissance missions above Somalia, the US Navy said, adding that the deployment was "in case the situation demands air power". The Pentagon has confirmed the strike took place, but today refused to say whether it was successful.
