Task force 88 attacked al Qaeda from Ethiopia, Kenya

NY Times:

The American military quietly waged a campaign from Ethiopia last month to capture or kill top leaders of Al Qaeda in the Horn of Africa, including the use of an airstrip in eastern Ethiopia to mount airstrikes against Islamic militants in neighboring Somalia, according to American officials.

The close and largely clandestine relationship with Ethiopia also included significant sharing of intelligence on the Islamic militants’ positions and information from American spy satellites with the Ethiopian military. Members of a secret American Special Operations unit, Task Force 88, were deployed in Ethiopia and Kenya, and ventured into Somalia, the officials said.

The counterterrorism effort was described by American officials as a qualified success that disrupted terrorist networks in Somalia, led to the death or capture of several Islamic militants and involved a collaborative relationship with Ethiopia that had been developing for years.

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... the extent of American cooperation with the recent Ethiopian invasion into Somalia and the fact that the Pentagon secretly used an airstrip in Ethiopia to carry out attacks have not been previously reported. The secret campaign in the Horn of Africa is an example of a more aggressive approach the Pentagon has taken in recent years to dispatch Special Operations troops globally to hunt high-level terrorism suspects. President Bush gave the Pentagon powers after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to carry out these missions, which historically had been reserved for intelligence operatives.

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Indeed, the Pentagon for several years has been training Ethiopian troops for counterterrorism operations in camps near the Somalia border, including Ethiopian special forces called the Agazi Commandos, which were part of the Ethiopian offensive in Somalia.

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On Jan. 6, two Air Force AC-130 gunships, aircraft with devastating firepower, arrived at a small airport in eastern Ethiopia. American Special Operations troops operating in Kenya, working with the Kenyan military, also set up positions along the southern border to capture militants trying to flee the country.

A Navy flotilla began to search for ships that might be carrying fleeing Qaeda operatives. Support planes were deployed in Djibouti. F-15Es from Al Udeid air base in Qatar also flew missions. Intelligence was shared with Ethiopia and Kenya through C.I.A. operatives in each country. American military planners also worked directly with Ethiopian and Kenyan military officials.

On Jan. 7, one day after the AC-130s arrived in Ethiopia, the airstrike was carried our near Ras Kamboni, an isolated fishing village on the Kenyan border.

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There is more.

The Ethiopians and Kenyans have shown themselves to be valuable allies in the war against the Islamist religious bigots. The success of the Ethiopian operation was a surprise to everyone. Previous reports on the C-130 attacks suggested that they flew out of a US base in Djibouti.

The first strike is believed to have successfully targeted Aden Hashi Ayro who had previously trained in Afghanistan. The second strike was against Sheik Ahmed Madobe who survived but was later captured by Ethiopia.

Fazul Abdullah Mohammed who planned the embassy bombing in 1998 is still at large, although Ethiopia still holds several high value targets who have not been identified. This operation looks like a success story in the global war against the Islamist bigots. It was far more successful than the whiny liberals at the UK papers predicted. It was the reverse of the disaster they thought it would be.

It was actually a success for the Rumsfeld strategy of using special forces in operations like this to go after the enemy anywhere he is found. It happened after he was replaced by Gates, but it followed his strategy. Don't expect the NY Times or other media to give him any credit, but history probably will.