WASHINGTON, 4 January — Is the US conducting aerial-reconnaissance flights over Somalia in preparation to bomb Al-Qaeda terrorist bases there?
According to intelligence reports cited in yesterday’s Washington Times, 100 Al-Qaeda terrorists were recently identified in the African nation. The Times quotes anonymous intelligence officers who say the terrorists were spotted as "part of the Islamic rebel group there known as Al-Ittihad Al-Islam."
The Mogadishu-based group, known as the AIAI, is linked to Somali warlord Hussein Mohammed Aideed, who has been closely linked to Osama Bin Laden’s Al-Qaeda terrorist group in Afghanistan. There is also some speculation that Bin Laden may have escaped to Somalia.
"Somalia will be next," one defense official familiar with defense planning allegedly told the Times.
Allied military forces are also said to be assisting the US in aerial reconnaissance in Somalia, which include US EP-3, British Nimrod and French Atlantique aircraft, the officials are quoted as saying.
These aircraft are identifying targets for future bombing raids, including alleged terrorist training camps in the southern and northern parts of Somalia and port facilities, the Times reported.
During the past few months, US intelligence reports have said weapons from terrorists in Afghanistan have been transported to Somalia, which is situated on the Horn of Africa.
But the Pentagon ruled the Times story as "out of hand."
US Marine Corps Lt. Colonel David Lapan, spokesman at the Pentagon said Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld would address these issues later yesterday, after Arab News goes to press.
"What I suspect the secretary is going to say, is along the lines of what he has said in the past, which is that no decisions have been made by the president on possible future actions after Afghanistan," said Lapan.
"There has been a lot of speculation around the whole idea that another country will be bombed next — Iraq, Sudan, Somalia; but it’s based on nothing but speculation."
"There are two big parts here that need to be remembered," said Lapan. "One is that no decision has been made, and two, we do not discuss future operations. The Times story is based only on speculation. What was leaked to (Bill) Gertz in the Washington Times, and what conclusions he drew from it — are two different things. We conduct reconnaissance all over the world every day, but that doesn’t mean we’re going to bomb the country," said Lapan.
"Gertz has taken the one piece of information about reconnaissance, and concluded that it means something he’s only guessing at," said Lapan.
