Zero fugitive al Qaeda killed.
Yet another screw up that killed dozens more innocent bystanders than bad guys.
A few days ago, the US bombed a group suspected of including al Qaeda fugitives in southern Somalia linked to the Clinton-era US embassy bombings. Now, news is leaking back from the ground. NGOs associated with Oxfam report...
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The relief organization OXFAM says nomadic herdsmen have been innocent targets of bombing in the south of the country. Beatrice Karanja, a spokesperson for OXFAM in Nairobi, tells VOA the bombings have affected some of the agency’s humanitarian water and sanitation programs.
"Oxfam has been receiving reports from our partner organizations in Somalia that nomadic herdsmen have been targeted in recent bombing raids. And what this has been is bombs have hit vital water sources, as well as the nomads and their animals, who had been gathering around large fires at night in order to ward off mosquitoes. What OXFAM is concerned about is that under international law there’s a duty to distinguish between military and civilian targets. But this principle isn’t being adhered to and eventually, as we see, innocent people are paying the price," she says.
Voice of America link.
Reuters link.
The Independent reports that no al Qaeda members were killed:
Meanwhile, the US ambassador to Kenya has acknowledged that the onslaught on Islamist fighters failed to kill any of the three prime targets wanted for their alleged role in the 1998 US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.
The wanted men are Fazul Abdullah Moham-med, Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan and Abu Taha al-Sudani, who were all supposedly sheltered by the Union of Islamic Courts during its short reign in Mogadishu.
The operation, which opened a new front in Washington's anti-terror campaign, seems to have backfired spectacularly in the five days since it was launched. In addition to the scores of Somali civilians killed, the simmering civil war in the failed state has been rekindled.
Yesterday concern was mounting at the high number of civilian casualties, despite a claim by the US ambassador, Michael Ranneberger, that no civilians had been killed or injured and that only one attack had taken place. The UN's refugee agency, UNHCR, reported that an estimated 100 people were wounded in Monday's air strikes on the small fishing village of Ras Kamboni launched from the US military base in Djibouti after a mobile phone intercept.
How many impeachable offenses do you figure we're up to?