A US missile strike in Somalia on Monday targeted a Kenyan suspected in the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in Africa, officials said on Tuesday.
The Navy was going after Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan when it launched at least two Tomahawk missiles from a submarine off the coast of Somalia, Pentagon and FBI officials said.
"Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan is on the FBI's "seeking information list" and is wanted by the FBI for questioning in connection with the 2002 attacks at the Paradise Hotel and the unsuccessful surface to air missile attack against an Israeli airliner in Kenya," FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said.
The list is made up of subjects the FBI would like to talk to, while the Most Wanted Terrorist list is suspects who have been indicted.
"He is also thought to be an associate of al-Qaeda member Harun Fazul, who was indicted for the 1998 embassy bombings," Kolko said, referring to the August 1998 simultaneous bombings of the embassies on Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania in which more than 200 people were killed.
He said he could not confirm whether Nabhan had been hit in the strike and referred questions to the US Defense Department.
The Pentagon official said he had no information on whether the attack succeeded. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.
US officials had said on Monday that the missile attack was aimed at a "known al-Qaeda terrorist" but declined to name him.
Hundreds of people shouted anti-US slogans on Tuesday in Dobley, the southern Somali town that was hit in Monday's attack.
Meanwhile, a report by the Government Accountability Office said on Tuesday that the US needs a comprehensive new strategy for Somalia. The report said a number of challenges have limited existing US and international efforts to stabilize the country.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) is to visit Russia next month for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies, Chinese Minister of Foreign Affairs Wang Yi (王毅) said on Thursday, a move that comes as Moscow and Beijing seek to counter the West’s global influence. Xi’s visit to Russia would be his second since the Kremlin sent troops into Ukraine in February 2022. China claims to take a neutral position in the conflict, but it has backed the Kremlin’s contentions that Russia’s action was provoked by the West, and it continues to supply key components needed by Moscow for
Japan scrambled fighter jets after Russian aircraft flew around the archipelago for the first time in five years, Tokyo said yesterday. From Thursday morning to afternoon, the Russian Tu-142 aircraft flew from the sea between Japan and South Korea toward the southern Okinawa region, the Japanese Ministry of Defense said in a statement. They then traveled north over the Pacific Ocean and finished their journey off the northern island of Hokkaido, it added. The planes did not enter Japanese airspace, but flew over an area subject to a territorial dispute between Japan and Russia, a ministry official said. “In response, we mobilized Air Self-Defense
CRITICISM: ‘One has to choose the lesser of two evils,’ Pope Francis said, as he criticized Trump’s anti-immigrant policies and Harris’ pro-choice position Pope Francis on Friday accused both former US president Donald Trump and US Vice President Kamala Harris of being “against life” as he returned to Rome from a 12-day tour of the Asia-Pacific region. The 87-year-old pontiff’s comments on the US presidential hopefuls came as he defied health concerns to connect with believers from the jungle of Papua New Guinea to the skyscrapers of Singapore. It was Francis’ longest trip in duration and distance since becoming head of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics more than 11 years ago. Despite the marathon visit, he held a long and spirited
China would train thousands of foreign law enforcement officers to see the world order “develop in a more fair, reasonable and efficient direction,” its minister for public security has said. “We will [also] send police consultants to countries in need to conduct training to help them quickly and effectively improve their law enforcement capabilities,” Chinese Minister of Public Security Wang Xiaohong (王小洪) told an annual global security forum. Wang made the announcement in the eastern city of Lianyungang on Monday in front of law enforcement representatives from 122 countries, regions and international organizations such as Interpol. The forum is part of ongoing