[A-List] U.S. Has Ground Troops in Southern Somalia: Journalist

["Yoshie Furuhashi" <critical.montages@xxxxxxxxx>]

<http://www.garoweonline.com/stories/publish/article_7183.shtml> 	
U.S. has ground troops in southern Somalia: Journalist
21 Jan 21, 2007, 13:21

NAIROBI - A freelance journalist said on Sunday he had seen U.S.
troops on the ground in south Somalia working with Ethiopian forces
hunting fugitive Islamists.

"They were Americans, I have no doubt," the journalist said, referring
to helicopters he saw overhead and personnel he bumped into with
Ethiopian soldiers at a military base.

Rumors have swirled for days that U.S. personnel were inside Somalia
since a January 8 air strike aimed at al Qaeda suspects believed to be
among the Islamists

The strike was Washington's first overt military engagement in Somalia
since 1994.

But there has been no official confirmation of a U.S. ground presence,
which would be sure to inflame political passions in Somalia and the
Horn of Africa region where Muslims complain of heightened
discrimination in the name of the "war on terror."

The Somali journalist said that while on a filming trip to the
Somalia-Kenya border area in recent days, he saw about 30 white men in
military dress, some showing U.S. Marine insignia, with Ethiopian
counterparts at the village of Kuldio.

The journalist, who works for various local and foreign media but
asked not to be named for security reasons, said his vehicle was also
tracked from the air for hours by two helicopters each carrying three
white crew members.

"We were terrified, because they obviously suspected we were
Islamists," he told Reuters in Nairobi by telephone.

"I was sure they were Americans in the helicopters, because we know
they are in the area helping the Ethiopians. Then when we reached
Kuldio, we saw them land, and the men got out.

"On the ground were at least 30 other Americans at a base with the
Ethiopians. They had brown T-shirts and military trousers, some with
U.S. Marines' badges on them."

Kuldio lies just a few kilometers from Ras Kamboni, where some
Islamists fled after being ousted from Mogadishu on December 28 after
a two-week offensive led by Somali government forces with their
Ethiopian military allies.

Neither U.S. Embassy officials in Kenya, who also have responsibility
for Somalia, nor spokesmen for the regional U.S. counter-terrorism
base in Djibouti, could be immediately reached to comment on the
journalist's report.

"TECHNICALS" ABLAZE

The Somali reporter said Ethiopian soldiers in the area had told him
he could film destroyed Islamist battle-wagons, but not Ethiopian or
American military personnel, or else his equipment would be destroyed.

His footage, sent to Reuters TV, shows images of destroyed
battle-wagons, or "technicals" as they are known in Somalia.

The journalist said he had counted 85 in a day. "Some were still
smoking because the Ethiopians are burning them," he said.

Washington quickly denied last week a Somali Islamist Web site report
that its retreating fighters had captured 10 U.S. soldiers, one of
whom died of malaria.

Qaadisiya.com, which has been the Islamists' official mouthpiece in
recent months, also said "mujahideen" -- who retreated to the remote
south after being ousted from Mogadishu -- planned to parade its U.S.
detainees in front of media.

But the U.S. envoy for Kenya and Somalia, Michael Ranneberger,
dismissed it as "utterly bogus".

Analysts have doubted whether Washington, which had a disastrous
peacekeeping mission to the chaotic Horn of Africa nation in the early
1990s, would want to be so directly engaged again as to send soldiers
on the ground.

The Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) ran most of south Somalia
for six months until government forces, backed by Ethiopian tanks,
jets and troops, drove them out in the two-week offensive over
Christmas and the New Year.

Source: Reuters


--
Yoshie
<http://montages.blogspot.com/>
<http://mrzine.org>
<http://monthlyreview.org/>