US Air Strikes on Somalia

Air strikes On Somalia: A New Stage In Washington’s Illegal “Terror” War By Chris Marsden

US air strikes against targets in the south of Somalia have claimed a substantial number of civilian lives. The bombing campaign, begun Sunday night and continued on Monday, mark a major escalation in the Bush administration’s lawless use of violence to achieve Washington’s strategic aims under the auspices of its “global war on terrorism.”The attacks mark the first direct US military intervention in Somalia since 1994, when President Clinton ordered US troops withdrawn following the “Blackhawk Down” episode that led to the deaths of 18 Army commandos during street fighting in Mogadishu. The recent attacks, part of an intensified attempt to establish American hegemony over the entire Horn of Africa, have heightened the threat that the conflict in Somalia will ignite a regional war with unforeseeable consequences.

The attacks on Hayi, 30 miles from Afmadow, and on a remote island 155 miles away, involved a US Air Force AC-130 gunship launched from a base in Djibouti. A Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) spokesman said, “So many dead people were lying in the area. We do not know who is who, but the raid was a success.”

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