Monday - October 19, 2009

How did this happen? Or did it?

Somali insurgents shot down a U.S. drone aircraft flying over the country’s southern port of Kismayo, a spokesman told Reuters on Monday. The insurgents, members of the Islamist fundamentalist group al Shabaab, are now searching the wreckage.

“We fired at an American plane spying for information over Kismayo. Our forces targeted the plane and shot it and we saw the plane burning. We think it fell into the sea,” Sheikh Hassan Yacqub, spokesman for the al Shabaab rebels in Kismayo, was quoted by Reuters.

“We are still searching for it,” he said.

Lieutenant Nathan Christensen, spokesman of the U.S. Navy’s Fifth Fleet in Bahrain, said all its unmanned aerial vehicles had been safely recovered but could not give further details.

Al Shabaab, which Washington says is al Qaeda’s proxy in Somalia, controls much of the south and center where it is waging an insurgency against the fragile U.N.-backed government.

So, wishful thinking on their part, or outright bullshit? Or they managed to wing one, but the Navy managed to land it anyway. Or else they’re denying it for psyop purposes? It’s so hard to tell. But these drones aren’t very big, and they do - or at least can - fly at pretty decent altitudes. Above the 29,000 foot level that a fairly modern 40mm Bofors can shoot. Unless the Navy was using one of the older drones.

So, do these insurgents now have anti-aircraft missiles? News to me, but what do I know? And where would they get the cash to buy such a weapon and who would sell it to them, plus the tens of thousands of rounds of ammo it would need? If this Al Shabaab group is that well funded and armed, why aren’t they more newsworthy? 

Posted by Drew458     on 10/19/2009 at 12:59 PM   
Filed Under: • War On Terror •  
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