Leave your feedback Share Copy URL https://www.pbs.org/newshour/show/u-s-launches-airstrikes-in-southern-somalia Email Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Pinterest Tumblr Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Transcript The United States has launched airstrikes against suspected al-Qaida forces in southern Somalia, the first acknowledged American military action inside the country since 1994. Two regional experts assess the U.S. operation and targets. Read the Full Transcript Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors. RAY SUAREZ: The alleged mastermind of the 1998 embassy attacks in East Africa was the target of the air strikes in Somalia, al-Qaida operative Fazul Abdullah Mohammed.The embassy bombings in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killed more than 225 people, including 12 Americans. Abdullah Mohammed and al-Qaida operatives are also suspected of planning a pair of near-simultaneous attacks in November 2002: the failed attempt to shoot down an Israeli aircraft at the Mombassa airport in Kenya; and a car bombing at a Kenyan resort that killed 13, injuring more than 80 people.In Somalia itself, there have been weeks of turmoil. The country has not had a government in 15 years. And just this week, interim President Abdullahi Yusuf returned to Mogadishu.Government forces, backed by Ethiopian troops, took control of the country from a movement known as the Islamic Courts after weeks of fighting and, with Kenyan troops, sealed the border between those two countries, trapping militants and jihadists.Some U.S. officials have expressed concern that Somali Islamist militias are linked to al-Qaida. Recently, the al-Qaida number two, Ayman al-Zawahiri, called for guerrilla resistance against the Somali government in a videotaped message.Today, President Yusuf said the U.S. was justified to target the terrorists. ABDULLAHI YUSUF, Interim President, Somalia: I am not sure if this actually happened. But if it did, the U.S. has every right to defend itself, because the bombers of the American embassy are hiding, and they deserve to be targeted. RAY SUAREZ: In Washington, White House Spokesman Tony Snow said the global search for terrorists will continue. TONY SNOW, White House Press Secretary: We've made it clear that this is a global war on terror. And this is a reiteration of the fact that — people who think that they're going to try to establish a safe haven for al-Qaida any place need to realize that we're going to fight them. RAY SUAREZ: These latest strikes were the first U.S. military action in Somalia in more than a decade. U.S. troops were sent in to help stabilize the country after the 1991 coup.But in October 1993, militants shot down a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter over Mogadishu, killing 18 Army rangers and special forces in the fighting that ensued. The incident eventually led to the withdrawal of most U.S. forces by March of 1994.But after 9/11, the U.S. military began building up its presence in the Horn of Africa, creating the combined Joint Task Force Horn of Africa, based in Camp Le Monier in Djibouti in 2002.The heavily armed AC-130 gun ships that took part in the air strikes in Somalia took off from the base in Djibouti.