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A U.S. airstrike in Somalia killed a leader in the Somali insurgency, media reported May 1. The attack reveals active counterterrorism coordination by the United States in Somalia, where the United States has carried out a limited number of ineffective airstrikes based on poor intelligence since the Ethiopian intervention in December 2006. The May 1 strike indicates that this intelligence deficiency has been remedied.
The U.S. airstrike took place in the central Somalian town of Dusamareb and reportedly killed Aden Hashi Ayro, a tactical commander of the al-Shabaab militant wing of the Supreme Islamic Courts Council (SICC). Residents reported that the attack occurred around 2 a.m. local time May 1 and was carried out by at least one AC-130 gunship, a tool of choice for U.S. strikes in Somalia. It is likely the AC-130 was forward-deployed from Djibouti — where the United States bases its Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa operation — to an air base in Ethiopia, similar to U.S. airstrikes in Somalia conducted in March 2008 and in January 2007.
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