'US' airstrikes hit Somalia
2008-05-26 10:22
Mogadishu - Airstrikes, possibly by the United States planes, caused explosions in a remote area in southern Somalia, said officials on Monday. There was no immediate information on casualties.
Buale town chairperson Ibrahim Noleye said planes were heard flying nearby on Sunday night, followed by two loud explosions that shook the ground. Buale is 410km southwest of the capital, Mogadishu.
Noleye said he had contacted officials in nearby villages, who told him by two-way radio that the planes had hit an area between Buale and another town called Sakow.
He could not say who launched the airstrike on Sunday night. But only US aircraft had launched such strikes in Somalia in recent months. The Somali government did not have an air force. Ethiopian troops based in Somalia had not been reported to conduct airstrikes.
'I heard loud explosions'
Noleye said: "We saw a big light which followed hours of the sounds of planes, and then we heard two big explosions between Buale, where we are, and Sakow."
The area was sparsely populated and used primarily for grazing livestock such as camel and goats.
"We contacted some of our people on the ground and they confirmed that it was a(n) (air)strike," Noleye said, adding that soon afterward they lost radio contact.
Ali Bashi Ahmed, chairperson of Fanole Human Rights Organisation, also said he heard loud explosions, but did not know where they had occurred. Ahmed spoke by telephone from the port town of Kismayo, southwest of Buale.
Duale Ganane, a colonel and a commander of a local militia, said, "we saw a light just a second before three huge explosions in the jungle north of Buale".
'No one can see a missile coming'
Aid worker Hassan Mohamed, who asked that his agency not be identified, said: "The light was like a star falling to earth."
Former military officer Muhidiin Nur Salah said, "I think it was an unknown device because in my view point no one can see a missile coming ... and we cannot say it was a star because stars do not explode on the ground."
American officials confirmed a United States airstrike on May 01 that killed Aden Hashi Ayro, the head of the military wing of Somalia's Islamists, along with 24 other people. Members of the military wing called al-Shabab, meaning "The Youth," had vowed to avenge his death.
Somalia had been in a state of anarchy since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. In December 2006, neighbouring Ethiopia sent troops to prop up a UN-backed government that had been unable to assert much authority and was facing an insurgency in the capital, Mogadishu.
Thousands of civilians had been killed and hundreds of thousands forced from their homes in a burgeoning humanitarian crisis.
- AP