These are still early reports, so we caution folks to be skeptical of any details. About the only thing clear is that there was a strike last night in Somalia, and it did successfully kill the man the US intended to kill.Capt. Jamie Graybeal, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, confirmed there was a U.S. airstrike early Thursday in the vicinity of Dusamareeb. Another U.S. military spokesman, Bob Prucha, said the attack was against a "known al-Qaida target and militia leader in Somalia." Both declined to provide further details.We put our money on cruise missile. While the US has plenty of air power in the region, the events in Iraq and Afghanistan are pretty hot right now, particularly around Baghdad and in the region where the 24th MEU is engaged. We continue to emphasize there is a lot more going on in 5th fleet than people are hearing about, with the media picking up on this and now reporting almost daily incidents ranging from piracy to non violent confrontation with Iran to attacks in Somalia.
But another U.S. defense official confirmed that the military launched a missile strike targeting Ayro at about 3 a.m. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.
Over the past year, the U.S. military has attacked several suspected extremists in Somalia, most recently in March when the U.S. Navy fired at least one missile into a southern Somali town.
In observing the media reports of the incident over the last hour, there are a lot of inconsistencies. The number of killed depends upon who wrote the story, usually ranging from 6-12 people. The extent of the damage also depends on who wrote the story, with one story describing the damage specific to the location targeted, with another story claiming an entire neighborhood was destroyed
May take a few days to get the real details. For us, and we aren't on a need to know basis here, about the only aspect of the story we care about is whether the strike came from a ship or sub.
No comments:
Post a Comment