US Airstrike in Somalia

CNN is reporting that a US airstrike has been launched in Somalia:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- A U.S. aerial gunship has attacked suspected al Qaeda targets in southern Somalia, a senior Pentagon official said Monday.

The AC-130 flew its mission within the last 24 hours, the official told CNN. The operation was launched based on intelligence that al Qaeda operatives were in that location, but there was no immediate indication of how successful the strike had been.

Additionally, the official said, the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower has moved within striking distance of Somalia, but its jets have not been put to use.

This begs the question: why is the US getting involved in the region?

The Ethiopian military is quite capable of launching its own airstrikes, as it did in late December.

Ths timing of this US maneveur comes in quite handy considering Bush is planning to give his so-called 'new way forward' (same shit, different day) speech about Iraq this week in which he'll now be able to point to the Somalia airstrike as an example of the need to keep fighting the GWOT. Wag that dog, Bush.

Update via MSNBC:

U.S. officials say that the United States received assurances from both the Ethiopian and Somalian governments in the last two weeks that, should they obtain intelligence concerning the whereabouts of the al-Qaida operatives, they would pass it on to the United States.

The operatives are believed to be responsible for the 1998 bombings in Kenya and Tanzania as well as 2002 attacks on Israeli tourists in Kenya and the attempted downing of an Israeli aircraft the same day.

We'll see how that turns out.

Update: CBS has more details.