The US military used bases inside Ethiopia last month to capture or kill top al-Qaeda leaders in the Horn of Africa, The New York Times reported on its website on Thursday, citing US officials. The Times said the campaign included the use of an airstrip in eastern Ethiopia to conduct air strikes against Islamic militants in neighbouring Somalia.
Officials were quoted as saying the clandestine relationship with Ethiopia also included significant information-sharing on the militants' positions and information from US spy satellites with the Ethiopian military, the newspaper reported. Members of a secret US special operations unit, Task Force 88, were deployed in Ethiopia and Kenya and ventured into Somalia, the officials added.
But Ethiopia denied the report. "Ethiopia has not provided any air base for the Americans to strike Somalia," said Bereket Simon, close adviser to Prime Minister Meles Zenawi. "The New York Times has fabricated this story and if there is any Pentagon official whom they are quoting, then that official does not have the slightest knowledge of the region or Ethiopia," said Simon, a minister without portfolio.
| Long-winded version with the requisite hand-wringing from the New York Times. |
|