Somalia Attacks: Any Thug In a Storm?

An Air Force gunship carried out a strike Sunday night against suspected Al Qaeda operatives in southern Somalia in the first U.S. military action in that lawless country since the infamous "Black Hawk Down" incident in 1993 when 18 American soldiers were killed in street fighting in Mogadishu. That attack was followed by assault helicopter strikes on Tuesday.

Special Forces units operating from an American base in Djibouti are conducting a hunt for Qaeda operatives who have been forced to flee the Somali capital since Islamic militants were driven from there by an Ethiopian military offensive last month.

American officials have long suspected that a handful of Al Qaeda suspects responsible for the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania have been hiding inside Somalia, a country that has not had a central government since 1991.

I am all for the attacks, but have just one little question:

To my knowledge, there are no good-guy leaders in Somalia, only varying degrees of thugs.

Does this mean that the U.S. is siding with thugs as it did in the run-up to the 1993 disaster?

Does it have no choice?

Any thug in a storm?

Or what?

More here.

Meanwhile, Bill Roggio at The Forth Rail has been on top of the story of the Al Qaeda capitulation in the Somali capital, as well as the airstrikes.

More here.