Word: somalia
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...feared enforcers of the Islamic Courts Union. The U.S. brands the organization as an ally of al-Qaeda; in reality, it is also a nationalist anti-warlord movement that contains many Muslim moderates and has no international ambitions. He was 11 when he left his village in southern Somalia and traveled to Mogadishu to look for an education. But all public education had collapsed with the last functioning government in 1991, leaving private school the only option. And Said Ali, like most of his generation, was unable to afford the fees. Instead, he found a job as a porter...
...military air strike on a suspected al-Qaeda target in Somalia reported Monday is but one of a number of U.S. operations there in recent days and weeks. In confirming the attack to TIME, a Pentagon official speaking on condition of anonymity said: "We have been active there for a lot longer than the past 48 hours.... Somalia is one of those troublesome 'ungoverned areas' - perhaps the worst in the world - and the U.S. has the authority to strike where it needs to there...
...military pursuit of "high-value" Qaeda targets in Somalia, where three key operatives accused of carrying out the 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania are believed to hiding, is made easier by the fact that a central state authority has scarcely existed in the East African nation for more than a decade. "It's one of those places where even the State Department, which is usually very cautious about us acting, in this case, said, hey, go ahead," said the Pentagon official. The three al-Qaeda operatives were the target of the gunship raid in southern Somalia...
...Pentagon source also contended that the ability to target Qaeda figures in Somalia is a positive by-product of the Iraq war. "We have a much better handle on Al Qaeda and its operations than we ever would have had we not gone to war in Iraq," he said. "That is not a reason for going to war, or trying to backdate a rationale, but it is a fact now. It is an unintended positive consequence...
...Somalia falls within the military's CENTCOM command area, and as a longtime Qaeda theater of operations has been a focus of U.S. military interest for years. Special Operations command has been active in the Horn of Africa with psychological operations and civil projects, such as building water wells and providing veterinary services, in several countries in the region for a number of years. The CENTCOM base in the tiny country of Djibouti - from which the gunship raid was staged - has become an important focus of regional counterterror efforts. Units based there have also played a central role in helping...