U.S. Forces Fire Missiles Into Somalia, Target Terrorist

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From 'New York Times': American naval forces fired missiles into southern Somalia on Monday, aiming at what the Defense Department called terrorist targets. Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman in Washington, said the target was a "known Al Qaeda terrorist." The missile strike was aimed at Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a Kenyan born in 1979. Nabhan is wanted for questioning by the FBI in the nearly simultaneous attacks in 2002 on a hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, and on an Israeli airliner taking off from there.

An American military official said the naval attack on Monday was carried out with at least two Tomahawk cruise missiles fired from a submarine. The official said the missiles were believed to have hit their targets. Witnesses on the ground described the attack... "I did not know from where they were launched, but what I know is that they hit a house in this town," said Muhammad Amin Abdullahi Osman, of Dhobley, a small town in southern Somalia near the Kenyan border. Mr. Muhammad said two missiles slammed into the house around 3:30 a.m.

In the attacks to which Mr. Nabhan has been linked, three suicide bombers drove up to the Paradise Hotel in Mombasa on November 28, 2002, and blew themselves up, killing 3 Israeli tourists and 10 Kenyans. That attack took place after terrorists aimed shoulder-fired missiles at an Israeli airliner taking off from Mombasa's airport, but missed. The Kenyan police say Mr. Nabhan bought the vehicle used in the hotel bombing. Kenyan authorities also suspect that Mr. Nabhan was involved in the bombings of United States Embassies in Nairobi and in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, on August 7, 1998, in which more than 200 people were killed and 5,000 wounded.