US Navy Bombards Somali Terrorists

The US is continuing to provide assistance to the Somali government, and have engaged in fire missions against the terrorists holed up in various parts of the country.

At least one U.S. warship bombarded a remote, mountainous village in Somalia where Islamic militants had set up a base, officials in the northern region of Puntland said Saturday.

The attack from a U.S. destroyer took place late Friday, said Muse Gelle, the regional governor. The extremists had arrived Wednesday by speedboat at the port town of Bargal.

Gelle said the area is a dense thicket, making it difficult for security forces from the semiautonomous republic of Puntland to intervene on its own.

A local radio station quoted Puntland's leader, Ade Muse, as saying that his forces had battled with the extremists for hours before the U.S. ships arrived and used their cannons. Muse said five of his troops were wounded, but that he had no information about casualties among the extremists.

A task force of coalition ships, called CTF-150, is permanently based in the northern Indian Ocean and patrols the Somali coast in hopes of intercepting international terrorists. U.S. destroyers are normally assigned to the task force and patrol in pairs.

Jihad Watch and Don Surber both comment on the attacks.

The US had been providing assistance to the Ethiopian government and the transitional government of Somalia to eliminate the Islamic Courts, which were providing material assistance to al Qaeda.

Somalia, a failed state, is a perfect terrorist incubator. With the lack of a functioning government and no border control, the terrorists are able to recruit new jihadis.

The Islamists have not gone without a fight, and are operating as insurgents, trying to remain viable. They've killed several government officials and are causing mayhem in some parts of the country.

UPDATE:
The US targets apparently include high value targets - al Qaeda:

The destroyer USS Chafee fired her deck guns at two or three suspected "high-value terrorist targets" in the Puntland area along the northern coast of Somalia on Saturday, U.S. officials told NBC News. The suspects are accused of taking part in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

According to the officials, the U.S. had "actionable intelligence” gathered by U.S. Special Operations Forces and local tribal leaders that the suspects were in the area.

The suspects reportedly include Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who is believed to be the mastermind of the 1998 attacks on U.S. Embassies in Africa that killed more than 200, and the 2002 Kenya attack on an Israeli hotel and simultaneous attempt to bring down an Israeli plane.

This isn't the first time that the US has tried to nail these guys in Somalia, so it will be interesting to see how this plays out. Good hunting.