ICU militia in bari was 13 not 35 and they still caled marey

[Hiiraan boy]

8 foreign Islamic militants killed in fighting with Somali government forces
By SALAD DUHUL
Associated Press Writer
769 words
2 June 2007
13:12
Associated Press Newswires
English
(c) 2007. The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Eight foreign Islamic militants were killed during fighting with Somali government forces in a remote, mountainous northeastern Somali area, the vice president of the region said Saturday.

The fight against Islamic militants in Somalia has dramatically moved to the relatively peaceful northeast of the country, opening up a new battlefront between them and Somali government forces and their allies who have previously fought only in the country's south.

Hassan Dahir Mohamoud, vice president of the semiautonomous northeastern region of Puntland, told The Associated Press there were no civilian casualties because the area is uninhabited. Earlier reports had said the fighting took place in a village, and it is not clear why there was the discrepancy.

At least one U.S. warship late Friday pounded the area, which is near the port town of Bargal, after the government forces clashed with the militants.

"We have successfully completed the operation against the terrorists who came here and we are chasing the other five," said Mohamoud, speaking from the Puntland capital, Garowe. He said the total number of militants was 13, but earlier government officials reported they were as many as 35.

Mohamoud said that five of the foreign militants came from Britain, Eritrea, Sweden, the U.S. and Yemen. He said security forces identified them from their passports.

The remaining three could not be immediately identified, Mohamoud said.

At an international conference in Singapore, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters who asked on Saturday about the Somalia reports, "Frankly, I don't know exactly what was going on. I've been on the road. And I wouldn't be commenting on operational activities anyway."

The government declared victory against Islamic insurgents in the Somali capital, which is in the south, in April. But since then officials of the government and Ethiopian troops sent to prop up it have been targeted in bomb attacks.

"The insurgency appears to be spreading to other parts of Somalia, which raises a fundamental problem for the TFG (transitional federal government). In addition, the military tactics being used by the insurgents, including the use of suicide bombings, raises a very serious question about the prospects for long-term stability in Somalia and the region," said Ted Dagne, a specialist in African Affairs at the Congressional Research Service, the research arm of the U.S. Congress.

Southern Somalia is where most of the country's 16 years of violence and chaos has taken place. Puntland, where the extremists went to, has known relative peace since forming its own regional government in 1998.

A task force of coalition ships, called CTF-150, is permanently based in the northern Indian Ocean and patrols the Somali coast in hopes of intercepting international terrorists. U.S. destroyers are normally assigned to the task force and patrol in pairs.

CNN International, quoting a Pentagon official, also reported the U.S. warship's involvement.

A Pentagon spokesman told The Associated Press he had no information about the incident.

"This is a global war on terror and the U.S. remains committed to reducing terrorist capabilities when and where we find them," Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said.

Puntland's minister of information, Mohamed Abdulrahman Banga, told the AP that the extremists arrived heavily armed in two fishing boats from southern Somalia, which they controlled for six months last year before being routed by Ethiopian troops sent to prop up a faltering Somali government.

Musa Ismail Mohamed, a Puntland resident, said that the area the extremists are in is difficult and dangerous terrain.

"This area is like Afghanistan's Tora Bora area. Americans should strike it harder than yesterday (Friday) and then they will succeed. If they do not do that, then maybe Bargal may become a stronghold for terrorists," said Mohamed, a 49 year-old former government economist, speaking by phone from Puntland's main port, Bossaso.

The United States has repeatedly accused Somalia's Council of Islamic Courts of harboring international terrorists linked to al-Qaida and allegedly responsible for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

The U.S. sent a small number of special operations troops with the Ethiopian forces that drove the Islamic forces into hiding. U.S. warplanes have carried out at least two airstrikes in an attempt to kill suspected al-Qaida members, Pentagon officials have said.