MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Islamist fighters in Somalia threatened
Friday to avenge the death of a reputed al Qaeda commander killed in a
U.S. airstrike and warned Americans to stay out of the Horn of Africa
nation.
U.S. missiles destroyed the house of Adan Ha**** Ayro in the central
Somali town of Dusamareeb on Thursday in the first major success in a
string of such U.S. military attacks over the past year.
"This will not deter us from prosecuting our holy war against Allah's
enemy," said Sheik Muqtar Robow, a spokesman for the al-Shabab militia
that Ayro led.
"We know our enemy. It is impossible to hit missiles on our people,
and we let your citizens come to our country," he said.
"We warn them to stay out of our country," he added.
The warning also applies to citizens of countries friendly to the
United States and to neighboring Ethiopia, which has sent troops to
fight Somalia's Islamist insurgency, he said.
Ten other people were killed in the attack, five of them civilians who
were sleeping in houses near Ayro's, according to local elder Ahmed
Mumin Jama. Four civilians were being treated for wounds, he said.
Robow said another senior al-Shabab leader, Sheik Muhidin Mohamud
Omar, was killed in the attack.
Ayro's assassination comes amid escalating fighting and a spiraling
humanitarian crisis in the country that has killed thousands of
civilians and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes in the
past year.
Al-Shabab is the armed wing of the Council of Islamic Courts movement,
which seized control of much of southern Somalia, including the
capital, Mogadishu, in 2006.
Ethiopian troops allied with Somalia's shaky U.N.-backed interim
government invaded to drive the movement from power in December 2006.
Since then, al-Shabab has pursued an Iraqi-style insurgency, with
roadside and suicide bombings and assassinations. In recent months,
the militia has briefly taken several towns, freeing prisoners and
seizing weapons from government forces. The insurgents usually
withdraw after a few hours but continue to target Ethiopian and Somali
forces.
The U.S. State Department considers al-Shabab a terrorist
organization.
Analysts say Thursday's attack could torpedo U.N.-backed peace talks
scheduled to start May 10, which were slated to be more inclusive than
previous rounds and offered a slim hope of bringing together the
disparate groups in the armed opposition, including some Islamists.
"However much the Americans claim the war on terror is one thing and
the peace process is another thing, it's not that clear-cut," said
Ra****d Abdi, an analyst at the International Crisis Group.
An International Crisis Group re****t linked Ayro to the murders of
four foreign aid workers, a British journalist and Somali peace
activist Abdulqadir Yahya. Somali government officials have said Ayro,
who was believed to be in his 30s, trained in Afghanistan before the
September 11 terrorist attacks and headed al Qaeda's cell in Somalia.
Few Somalis had heard of him before 2005, when Ayro desecrated a
colonial Italian cemetery in Mogadishu, throwing hundreds of exhumed
corpses into the sea. He then built a mosque on the site and began
training fighters there.
Capt. Jamie Graybeal, a spokesman for U.S. Central Command, confirmed
there was a U.S. airstrike early Thursday in central Somalia.
Another U.S. defense official, who sought anonymity because he was not
authorized to speak on the record, confirmed the strike targeted Ayro.
Repeated attempts to reach Somali government officials were
unsuccessful.
The United States has often accused Islamist Somalis of harboring
international terrorists linked to al Qaeda, including those blamed
for the deadly 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and
Tanzania.
The U.S. has backed Somali warlords promising to fight the insurgents,
including some accused of human rights abuses. That strategy has
deepened anti-American sentiment.
There are many different and ****fting alliances in the insurgency. One
faction made up of warlords, politicians and businessmen is willing to
take part in the peace talks. Its primary concern is the withdrawal of
Ethiopian forces.
But there are more extreme elements, especially among the al-Shabab
militia that opposes the talks.
In the past year, the U.S. military has attacked several suspected
extremists in Somalia -- most recently in March, when the U.S. Navy
fired at least one missile into a southern Somali town. The attack
targeted Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a Kenyan suspected in the 1998
embassy attacks.
Somalia has been without an effective government for nearly 20 years.
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