The Christian Science Monitor’s Danna Harman reports on the feeling of impending doom in Somalia.

The US is looking at several areas in Somalia where it suspects there are terrorist training camps with links to Al Qaeda, according to intelligence sources. Some are around the capital, Mogadishu, one is near Laascaanood in the north, one is on the island of Ras Kamboni, and one is [in El Wak]. British, French, and US military reconnaissance flights have become more frequent in recent days, with US Navy P-3 planes doubling their missions over the country to four or five a week. The Pentagon will soon have three Marine Expeditionary Units (with 1,200 troops each) patrolling the Somali coastline, ensuring Al Qaeda members escaping Afghanistan cannot find shelter on these lawless shores. Germany sent a fleet of six ships to the Horn of Africa Wednesday. The US is continuing discussions with the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC), a loose grouping of warlords backed by Ethiopia who oppose the government in Mogadishu and have pledged to fight terrorism. Ethiopia reportedly sent 70 officers to Baidoa last week to train members of SRRC for fighting, though Addis Ababa denies it. Here in El Wak, the locals spend hours every day huddled around transistor radios, listening to crackling newscasts from afar, and wondering if they are next on the US list. ‘We used to be very fond of America,’ says Adam Gedo, chairman of the El Wak elders council. ‘But now we are fearful…. We don’t know what we have done,’ he says. ‘If we hear a plane, we cover our eyes and pray, because we think it is the US coming to bomb us.’

Don’t fret, Mr. Gedo. We don’t bomb indiscriminately. Of course, if you’re harboring al Qaeda soldiers or training facilities — fattening yourself on the teat of Arab blood money, as it were — why then yes, be afraid. Gone are the days when the U.S. was willing to put Band-Aids on festering wounds. Time to scrape the infection…

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