Harassment and Interdictment of Terror Threats Continue

The US airstrikes earlier in the week did not eliminate any of the top three al Qaeda terrorists who were targeted. However, associates close to those three leaders were killed in the airstrikes.

None of the top three suspected terrorists in Somalia were killed in a U.S. airstrike this week, but Somalis with close ties to al-Qaida were slain, a senior U.S. official in the region said Thursday.
A day earlier, a Somali official had said a U.S. intelligence report had referred to the death of Fazul Abdullah Mohammed _ one of the three senior al-Qaida members believed responsible for bombing U.S. embassies in East Africa.

But U.S. and Ethiopian troops in southern Somalia were still pursuing the three, the U.S. official said Thursday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record to the media.

I would hope that the US and Somali forces were continuing to pursue the al Qaeda terrorists.

Meanwhile, a large contingent of insurgents in Afghanistan were killed by NATO forces. The Taliban deny this (of course they do - like they're going to admit that they're getting plastered all over the place every time they congregate in groups?)

NATO forces fought two large groups of militants crossing the border from Pakistan, and as many as 150 insurgents were killed, the alliance said Thursday. A Taliban spokesman called the report ''a complete lie.''

The fighters were attacked with ground fire and airstrikes in eastern Afghanistan, NATO said. Gen. Murad Ali, the Afghan army regional deputy corps commander, said the insurgents had traveled into Paktika province with several trucks of ammunition.

A NATO statement said ''initial battle damage estimates'' indicated that as many as 150 fighters were killed. Ali said more than 50 fighters were killed late Wednesday and early Thursday. Mohammad Zahir Azimi, the spokesman for the Ministry of Defense, estimated the toll at 80.

This comes at a time when we're once again hearing rumors about how the Taliban will again launch a spring offensive. I expect the so-called spring offensive to work out for the Taliban just as well as their previous efforts, which is to say that they were abysmal failures - thousands of Taliban killed and no measurable gains though the media tried to play up any gain to maximum effect.

Meanwhile, the Iraqis are finally getting serious in dealing with the Shi'ite militias. This has been way too long in coming, and the Iraqi move, combined with changes to the US rules of engagement might finally turn the tide against the lawlessness due to the insurgent activities in Iraq.