Tuesday, January 9, 2006 News Update
A U.S. airstrike hit targets in southern Somalia where Islamic militants were believed to be sheltering suspects in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies, Somali officials and witnesses said Tuesday.
Helicopter gunships launched new attacks Tuesday near the scene of the U.S. airstrike, although it was not clear if they were American or Ethiopian aircraft, and it was not known if there were any casualties. Two helicopters "fired several rockets toward the road that leads to the Kenyan border," said Ali Seed Yusuf, a resident of the town of Afmadow in southern Somalia.
The airstrike occurred Monday evening after the suspects were seen hiding on a remote island on the southern tip of Somalia, close to the Kenyan border, Somali officials said. The island and a site 155 miles north were hit. The main target was Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who allegedly planned the 1998 attacks on the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, that killed 225 people. He is also suspected of planning the car bombing of a beach resort in Kenya and the near simultaneous attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner in 2002.
The aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower arrived off Somalia's coast and launched intelligence-gathering missions over Somalia, the military said. Three other U.S. warships are conducting anti-terror operations off the Somali coast. Monday's attack was the first overt military action by the U.S. in Somalia since the 1990s and the legacy of a botched intervention - known as "Black Hawk Down" - that left 18 U.S. servicemen dead.
Neither the White House or the Pentagon would confirm the attack.
Iraqi soldiers backed by U.S. troops battled gunmen in central Baghdad early Tuesday, and explosions were heard in the area, police and witnesses and the U.S. military said.
Police said the clashes erupted when gunmen attacked Iraqi army checkpoints in the Haifa Street area, and that Iraqi soldiers appealed to the U.S. military for help. American forces sealed off roads and joined Iraqi troops in raiding houses in pursuit of the gunmen, police said. American warplanes could be seen flying low over the Haifa Street area.
>The Iraqi defense ministry issued a statement saying eleven people were arrested, including seven Syrians. But the U.S. military said only three people had been arrested. >A U.S. military spokesman said American and Iraqi forces on Tuesday launched "targeted raids to capture multiple targets, disrupt insurgent activity and restore Iraqi Security Forces control of North Haifa Street."
"This area has been subject to insurgent activity which has repeatedly disrupted Iraqi Security Force operations in central Baghdad," Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl said in a statement.
Troops were receiving small arms fire, rocket-propelled grenade and indirect fire attacks during the operation, the statement said. The area is a Sunni insurgent stronghold in the center of the Iraqi capital, just to the north of the heavily fortified Green Zone which houses the U.S. and British Embassies, as well as many Iraqi government offices.
Fighting broke out there late Saturday, and the Iraqi army reported killing 30 militants that night - hours after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced a new open-ended security plan to oust sectarian killers from Baghdad. Iraqi state television said eight militants, including five Sudanese fighters, were captured Saturday near Haifa Street. Police reported finding the bodies of 27 torture victims dumped there earlier in the day.
The top U.S. general on the Korean Peninsula said Tuesday he believes North Korea might conduct another nuclear test.
U.S. Army Gen. B.B. Bell, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, said the communist regime - which conducted its first nuclear test on Oct. 9 - is capable of testing another such device, but he didn't elaborate on recent media reports that the North was preparing to do so.
"There is no reason to believe that at some time in the future, when it serves their purposes, that they won't test another one. So I suspect someday they will," Bell said at a news conference in Seoul.
Concerns about North Korea heightened abruptly last week in Asia after ABC News reported Pyongyang might be preparing for another test. Citing unnamed U.S. defense officials, the network said the moves were similar to steps taken before the October blast. Top U.S. and South Korean officials dismissed the speculation, saying there was no indication such a development was imminent.
Feature story: An Indestructible Royal Marine in Afghanistan
Commentary: Why They Fight; And what it means for us.
Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else. - Will Rogers
Helicopter gunships launched new attacks Tuesday near the scene of the U.S. airstrike, although it was not clear if they were American or Ethiopian aircraft, and it was not known if there were any casualties. Two helicopters "fired several rockets toward the road that leads to the Kenyan border," said Ali Seed Yusuf, a resident of the town of Afmadow in southern Somalia.
The airstrike occurred Monday evening after the suspects were seen hiding on a remote island on the southern tip of Somalia, close to the Kenyan border, Somali officials said. The island and a site 155 miles north were hit. The main target was Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who allegedly planned the 1998 attacks on the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, that killed 225 people. He is also suspected of planning the car bombing of a beach resort in Kenya and the near simultaneous attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner in 2002.
The aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower arrived off Somalia's coast and launched intelligence-gathering missions over Somalia, the military said. Three other U.S. warships are conducting anti-terror operations off the Somali coast. Monday's attack was the first overt military action by the U.S. in Somalia since the 1990s and the legacy of a botched intervention - known as "Black Hawk Down" - that left 18 U.S. servicemen dead.
Neither the White House or the Pentagon would confirm the attack.
Iraqi soldiers backed by U.S. troops battled gunmen in central Baghdad early Tuesday, and explosions were heard in the area, police and witnesses and the U.S. military said.
Police said the clashes erupted when gunmen attacked Iraqi army checkpoints in the Haifa Street area, and that Iraqi soldiers appealed to the U.S. military for help. American forces sealed off roads and joined Iraqi troops in raiding houses in pursuit of the gunmen, police said. American warplanes could be seen flying low over the Haifa Street area.
>The Iraqi defense ministry issued a statement saying eleven people were arrested, including seven Syrians. But the U.S. military said only three people had been arrested. >A U.S. military spokesman said American and Iraqi forces on Tuesday launched "targeted raids to capture multiple targets, disrupt insurgent activity and restore Iraqi Security Forces control of North Haifa Street."
"This area has been subject to insurgent activity which has repeatedly disrupted Iraqi Security Force operations in central Baghdad," Lt. Col. Scott Bleichwehl said in a statement.
Troops were receiving small arms fire, rocket-propelled grenade and indirect fire attacks during the operation, the statement said. The area is a Sunni insurgent stronghold in the center of the Iraqi capital, just to the north of the heavily fortified Green Zone which houses the U.S. and British Embassies, as well as many Iraqi government offices.
Fighting broke out there late Saturday, and the Iraqi army reported killing 30 militants that night - hours after Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki announced a new open-ended security plan to oust sectarian killers from Baghdad. Iraqi state television said eight militants, including five Sudanese fighters, were captured Saturday near Haifa Street. Police reported finding the bodies of 27 torture victims dumped there earlier in the day.
The top U.S. general on the Korean Peninsula said Tuesday he believes North Korea might conduct another nuclear test.
U.S. Army Gen. B.B. Bell, commander of U.S. Forces Korea, said the communist regime - which conducted its first nuclear test on Oct. 9 - is capable of testing another such device, but he didn't elaborate on recent media reports that the North was preparing to do so.
"There is no reason to believe that at some time in the future, when it serves their purposes, that they won't test another one. So I suspect someday they will," Bell said at a news conference in Seoul.
Concerns about North Korea heightened abruptly last week in Asia after ABC News reported Pyongyang might be preparing for another test. Citing unnamed U.S. defense officials, the network said the moves were similar to steps taken before the October blast. Top U.S. and South Korean officials dismissed the speculation, saying there was no indication such a development was imminent.
Feature story: An Indestructible Royal Marine in Afghanistan
Commentary: Why They Fight; And what it means for us.
Everything is funny as long as it is happening to somebody else. - Will Rogers