Terrorist Somali "unsafe house" hit by US missile

Reuters/Washington Post:

Two U.S. missiles hit a house in southern Somalia on Monday, according to local officials, in a strike Washington said was directed at "known terrorists."

It was the fourth U.S. air strike in 14 months on Somalia, where Washington believes local Islamist insurgents are giving shelter to wanted al Qaeda figures.

"We launched a deliberate strike against a suspected bed-down of known terrorists," a senior U.S. official, who declined to be named, told Reuters in Washington.

Residents of Dobley, a remote Somali town 220 km (140 miles) from the southern port city of Kismayu on the Kenyan border, believed the missiles were targeting senior Islamist leaders meeting nearby.

Dobley district commissioner Ali Hussein Nur said six people were killed, but a local politician who had visited the scene and who asked not to be named, said only three people were wounded.

The U.S. official said it was too early to know what damage had been inflicted, or whether any people were injured or killed. The official declined to give details on the type of weapon used.

The Somali politician said Sheikh Hassan Turki, a local militant cleric, and other leaders from a militant Islamist group from Mogadishu were meeting in the vicinity. The Islamists have been waging a bloody insurgency against Somali government forces.

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This appears to be a target of opportunity similar to recent strikes in Pakistan. It is an interesting strategy which should make terrorist leaders wary of any meetings in person. what this does is make communication and coordination even more difficult unless then use over air communications which the US can intercept.

The strike also suggest that the US probably has some human intelligence in Somalia that tipped us off to the meeting.

The owner of the house appears to be angling for some dollars, claiming that he lost four cows in the blast and that his daughter was injured. At least he is not claiming it was a wedding party.