HARGEISA, Somalia, 7 May 2005 — The self-declared republic of Somaliland accused US forces of violating its airspace yesterday, contradicting denials by US generals that American forces had been active on the Somali coast this week.
Authorities in Somaliland, an enclave in northwestern Somalia, said a US helicopter had made an unauthorized flight over the port town of Berbera on Wednesday and fishermen had reported brief visits by small groups of US troops on Tuesday.
The United States military has denied the reports, insisting that it has been active only in neighboring Djibouti, where it says it carried out live fire and landing exercises last week.
The defense minister of Somaliland, which is not internationally recognized, said the government would lodge a formal complaint with US forces in Djibouti, the hub of Washington’s counterterrorism operations in the Horn of Africa. “The US has not informed the government of Somaliland, nor have they asked for permission to enter Somaliland airspace or territorial waters,” Defense Minister Ismail Aden Boss told Reuters in Somaliland’s capital of Hargeisa.
“Entering Somaliland territory with helicopters or boats without permission could be dangerous for them, for there are thousands of weapons, some of them heavy, in the hands of the public that have not been accounted for,” he said.
Somaliland broke away from the rest of Somalia in 1991 to escape the chaos engulfing the country following the ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and has since been relatively stable.
Any visit by US forces to Somali territory could provoke anger in Somalia, where 18 US troops and about 300 Somalis were killed in a gunbattle when American forces raided a warlord’s stronghold in the capital Mogadishu in 1993. Boss said he had received reports from fishermen that several small boats carrying US troops had landed at the coastal settlements of Maydh and Las Qorei on Tuesday, although he did not have personnel in the remote area to confirm them.
Locals said the soldiers showed them pictures of “terrorist” suspects they were looking for before leaving after a few hours.
US generals denied there had been any US military activity off the Somali coast this week, despite the reports from Somaliland officials, fishermen and journalists.
“The report is false. The Marines have not landed,” Marine Corps Lt. Gen. James Conway, director of operations for the US military joint chiefs of staff, told reporters at a Pentagon briefing on Thursday.
