Talk:Battle of Ras Kamboni

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Contents 1 Attack Helicopter & Ethiopian Jet strikes on Afmadow 2 Conflicting date 3 27 civilians dead? 4 U.S. air strike 5 US why bother 6 Captured? 7 British/Dutch Involvement?

[edit] Attack Helicopter & Ethiopian Jet strikes on Afmadow

I edited the mention "however, Ethiopian jets were also noted as attacking this area in other reports." The Ethiopian jet strikes on Afmadow took place on Jan 8. The attack helicopter strikes occurred on Jan 9. While the attack helicopters could have been Ethiopian instead of American, it should be noted these incidents are distinct and occurred over two different days. --Petercorless 23:58, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Again, the attack on Jan 8 should not be confused with the attack on Jan 9. --Petercorless 03:14, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

As indicated below, there are two separate days of airstrikes -- one by MiGs, another by attack helicopters (presumably Hinds). --Petercorless 05:32, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Conflicting date

The first paragraph says "The battle began on January 3, 2007, when TFG and Ethiopian forces launched their assault." But the sidebar on the right says "Date: January 5, 2007 - present". Which is it? Can someone clarify? --Fuzza409 01:25, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

January 5, with Col. Hiiraale's announcement. --Petercorless 01:47, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 27 civilians dead?

All the reports I've heard say 27 confirmed dead and it is not known how many are civilians and how many are militants. Maybe I'm not getting all the info but that's what I've heard--Acebrock 06:26, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

Associated Press reports 31 dead. --Petercorless 06:47, 10 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] U.S. air strike

While we are still reporting two airstrikes, I believe that we need to pursue the posssibility that there was only one U.S. attack and that all the others have been Ethiopian assualts. For instance, this article not only has the explicit line "U.S. officials have also acknowledged launching one airstrike..." but goes on to say "Somali officials say the U.S. has carried out additional strikes, but there is no way to independently verify whether those were launched by U.S. or Ethiopian forces." It and other articles have also contained statements like "U.S. official in the region said eight to 10 individuals were killed in the attack". Notice attack singular and the low count of the dead especially as compared to the reports from the purported second U.S. attack. This BBC article also seems dubious of multiple U.S. attacks. Rmhermen 16:00, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

"The official also contradicted numerous statements by Somali government officials in recent days, saying the U.S. had carried out just one airstrike"[1]. Rmhermen 23:25, 11 January 2007 (UTC)

"The amount of misinformation out there is of serious concern to us," he [a senior US official] said referring to reports of major casualties and more than one US strike in the area.[2] He also denies that Special Forces troops are in Somalia, though. Rmhermen 04:27, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

I will get to it tomorrow, but a head's up I will change my map to show the strike against Hayo to be Ethiopian, leaving just the strike on Ras Kamboni as US. There have been other Ethiopian attacks on Ras Kamboni, so I'm going to leave an Ethiopian strike symbol there also. --Petercorless 13:45, 12 January 2007 (UTC)

Also, Image:Somalia_US_airstrikes.png shows US airstrikes Jan 9-10. It is therefore incorrect. I'll see if I can make a different map, showing the strike coming from Djibouti. --Petercorless 03:23, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

Map on airstrike updated: Us-attack-in-somalia-01082007-2134.svg --Petercorless 05:31, 13 January 2007 (UTC)

[edit] US why bother

- - Why is the US joining so late in the "game" the Ethiopians were on top of things. Is it that the US want to join a sucessful military operation and take credit for it? —Preceding unsigned comment added by Petercorless (talk • contribs) 13:46, 12 January 2007

I suspect the US was providing Ethiopia command and control support all along and the US wanted to take out some high value Al Quida targets when the Ethiopians flushed them out. 216.9.182.249 (talk) 18:39, 4 May 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Captured?

Another Wikipedia article, citing http://www.somalinet.com/news/world/Somalia/7367 says that U.S. Marines may have been captured during this battle. Any further information? 69.140.152.55 (talk) 10:05, 21 April 2008 (UTC)

[edit] British/Dutch Involvement?

Should the British be listed in the sidebar? I note in a later battle with pirates Wikipedia says Combined TaskForce 150 is Dutch lead, not British lead. Is the leadership of this taskforce rotating?216.9.182.249 (talk) 18:45, 4 May 2008 (UTC)