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WASHINGTON - The destroyer USS Chafee fired her deck guns at two or three suspected "high-value terrorist targets" in the Puntland area along the northern coast of Somalia on Saturday, U.S. officials told NBC News. The three suspects are accused of taking part in the 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
According to the officials, the U.S. had "actionable intelligence” gathered by U.S. Special Operations Forces and local tribal leaders that the suspects were in the area.
Out of fear that the suspects would leave the area, the decision was made to order the
The Chafee was the U.S. military's closest asset, the officials said. Airstrikes would have come too late.
There has been no battle damage assessment to determine if any of the suspects were killed or wounded in the attack, the officials told NBC News.
One of the suspects, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, had also been targeted in December in airstrikes by U.S. AC-130 gunships in Somalia.
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He was also the author of the 2002 attacks on an Israeli-owned hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, and the attempted shoot-down of an Israeli charter plane that same day.
He is also known as Harun Fazul. He is on the FBI's most wanted list. There is a $5 million reward.
Source: NBC, June 01, 2007