24 Feb 2007 - The U.S. military in secret used landing strips in eastern Ethiopia to launch air strikes on suspected Muslim activists in Somalia last month, The Guardian reported on Saturday.

Quoting anonymous army officials, the New York Times also claimed that the U.S. diverted spy satellites to provide intelligence to Ethiopian troops as they swept across the country to drive the Somali Council of Islamic Courts (SCIC) out of the capital, Mogadishu.

If true, the report would confirm rumors of close planning between U.S. and Ethiopia before and during the war. Both administrations deny this was the case. The account also raises questions about the relationship between Washington and the Ethiopian premier, Meles Zenawi, whose record on human rights has come under severe scrutiny.

Until now, the U.S. has refused to provide specifics on its operations in Somalia, other than to confirm that it launched two strikes aimed at alleged "Al-Qaeda affiliated" members of the SCIC in the far south of the country.

According to the NYT, which said military officials considered the Somalia operations a much-needed counter terrorism success, two AC-130 gunships landed at a small airstrip in eastern Ethiopia on January 6.

One of the planes launched a strike on a suspected Muslim convoy the following day. A second strike followed two weeks later. No "high-value targets" - the term U.S. officials use to describe al-Qaeda members - were killed in either attack.

Initially it was suspected that the planes had flown from Djibouti, where the U.S. has a large military base. But Djibouti's president later condemned the U.S. attacks, and denied the planes took off from there.

Source: PressTv (PDM/HAR)

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