(TERRORISM) READ: US Strike Kills al-Qaeda Hotel Bomber in Somalia…

Also wanted in 1998 US embassy attacks

(Newser Summary) – An American helicopter strike killed a long-sought terrorist in Southern Somalia yesterday, the New York Times reports. Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, an al-Qaeda leader operating out of Kenya, was suspected in the 2002 attack on a Kenyan resort as well as the attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. He was riding in a truck with leaders of Shabab, a Somali Islamist extremist group, when the US copters struck.

A senior Shabab commander tells the AP the group will seek revenge on the US. Shabab is fighting to overthrow Somalia’s teetering government, and intelligence officials say it’s drawing closer to al-Qaeda. But the main target of the strike was Nabhan. When special operations forces saw he’d moved away from civilians, they pounced. “We have been watching him for a long, long, time,” said a military official.

—Kevin Spak

Sources: New York Times, Associated Press

(WAR) READ: McChrystal: US Is Failing in Afghanistan…

(Newser Summary) – The US military’s strategy in Afghanistan is failing, Gen. Stanley McChrystal will tell commanders in Washington today. A copy of the US commander’s remarks leaked to the BBC compares the military to a bull charging at a matador—losing strength with each individual cut. McChrystal’s report says Afghans are suffering a crisis of confidence, since their lives have not improved since 2001.

The long-awaited report says that Afghan military forces will not be ready to take the lead in peacekeeping for at least three years, and training police will take even longer. McChrystal also says the US should engage more with Taliban insurgents, estimating a 60% reduction in violence if they were found jobs. The report stops short of asking for more troops, but increased troop levels are implied—and may be made explicit in a second report to come.

—Jason Farago

Sources: BBC, Reuters