Ras Kamboni (
Somali:
Raaskambooni) is a town in the
Badhaadhe district of
Lower Juba region,
Somalia, which lies on a
peninsula near the border with
Kenya. American officials have said that it has served as a training camp for extremists with connections to
Al-Qaeda;
al-Sharq al-Awsat reported in
May 1999 that al-Qaeda was installing sophisticated communications equipment in the camp.
US security concerns in the
Horn of Africa, particularly at Ras Kamboni, heightened after the attacks on
9/11. On
December 16,
2001,
Paul Wolfowitz said the US was meeting with various Somali and Ethiopian contacts to "observe, survey possible escape routes, possible sanctuaries" for Al Qaeda operatives. On
March 2,
2002 a briefing was held in
the Pentagon discussing the possible use of Ras Kamboni by Islamic
terrorist groups, including
al-Ittihaad al-Islamiya (AIAI) and
Al Qaeda. In
December 2002, the US established the
Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) to monitor developments in the region and to train local militaries on counterterrorism.
American officials believe that several terrorist attacks were orchestrated from Ras Kamboni, including the
1998 United States embassy bombings and the
2002 Mombasa hotel bombing.
Battle of Ras Kamboni
In the
2006 war in Somalia, Islamic Courts Union fighters fled Ethiopian troops to Ras Kamboni, to make a last stand on the country's southernmost tip.
On
January 8,
2007, during the battle, it was reported an
AC-130 gunship belonging to the
United States military had attacked suspected Al-Qaeda operatives in southern Somalia. It was also reported that the
aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower had been moved into striking distance. The aircraft flew out of its base in
Djibouti. Many bodies were spotted on the ground, but the identity of the dead or wounded wasn't yet established. The aid organization,
Oxfam, reported 100 nomads were killed. The targeted leaders were tracked by the use of
unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) as they headed south from Mogadishu starting on
December 28.
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