California Conservative

If this report by CBS’s national security correspondent David Martin is right, then we’ve just had a major military victory in East Africa. Here’s what he’s reporting:

A U.S. Air Force gunship has conducted a strike against suspected members of al Qaeda in Somalia, CBS News national security correspondent David Martin reports exclusively. The targets included the senior al Qaeda leader in East Africa and an al Qaeda operative wanted for his involvement in the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Africa, Martin reports. Those terror attacks killed more than 200 people.
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The gunship flew from its base in Djibouti down to the southern tip of Somalia, Martin reports, where the al Qaeda operatives had fled after being chased out of the capital of Mogadishu by Ethiopian troops backed by the United States.
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If the attack got the operatives it was aimed at, reports Martin, it would deal a major blow to al Qaeda in East Africa.

That’s great news. Eliminating high-ranking al Qa’ida operatives and planners can’t help but put a smile on everyone’s face. It should also serve as a major morale boost to the troops who’ve been hunting these terrorists. Congratulations are definitely in order.

That isn’t the only good news in this CBS report:

Meanwhile, a jungle hideout used by Islamic militants that is believed to be an al Qaeda base was on the verge of falling to Ethiopian and Somali troops, the defense minister said Monday.

Ethiopian troops have had al Qa’ida on the run for awhile now so this isn’t a huge surprise. Rather, it’s simply welcome news, which we can always use more of.

Technorati Tags: Special Forces, Al Qaeda, Somalia, Ethiopia, embassy Bombings, Djibouti

Cross-posted at LetFreedomRingBlog

This entry was posted on Tuesday, January 9th, 2007 at 1:39 am and is filed under Africa, Author: Gary Gross, Intel, Military, Terrorism. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.