US Troops in Somalia?

Reuters is reporting that a free-lance Somali journalist is claiming to have seen US troops "on the ground" working in collaboration with Ethopian troops.

"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.

The entire article can be found at Yahoo News

More on the dark side:

"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."

The reporter went on to say that Ethopian soliders gave him strict guidelines regarding what he could take photographs of, or risk having his equipment destroyed:  destroyed Islamist battlewagons, but not Ethiopian or US personnel.

The US has offered no confirmation, and in fact last week, as reported in the full article, the US strongly denied a report that US troops had actually been captured by Somali Islamists.

However, WaPo reported on Jan. 12 that a "small team" of US miltary personnel had gone into Somalia to assess the efficacy of earlier US air stikes, delivered in conjunction with the Ethopian army offensive against Somali Islamists.

Was that "small team" enlarged?  So far we had only the claims of a freelance Somali journalist, But given the history of recent US involvement in Somalia, it would come as no surpise to me that BushCo would both deny having sent troops to Somalia, and would have done so in secret; it would take little time for video of the "Black Hawk Down" incident to surface, reminding Americans of the bloody, violent deaths of US Marines, followed by the dragging of their dead bodies through Mogadishu.