The concept of overkill is dead

The US Navy fired at least two submarine-launched Tomahawk cruise missiles into southern Somalia in an attempt to kill one Kenyan wanted by the FBI for questioning.

Apparently, the concept of overkill is dead.

American naval forces fired missiles into southern Somalia on Monday, aiming at what the Defense Department called terrorist targets.

Residents reached by telephone said that three civilians were wounded, and that the only other casualties were three dead cows, one dead donkey and a partly destroyed house.

Bryan Whitman, a Pentagon spokesman in Washington, said the target was a “known Al Qaeda terrorist.”

The missile strike was aimed at Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a Kenyan born in 1979 who is wanted by the FBI for questioning in the nearly simultaneous attacks in 2002 on a hotel in Mombasa, Kenya, and on an Israeli airliner taking off from there….

An American military official said…. the missiles were believed to have hit their targets.

Witnesses on the ground, though, described the attack differently.

The cost of two Tomahawk cruise missiles (99FY) is approximately $1.2 million. No data are yet available for the replacement costs of the 3 dead cows, 1 dead donkey, and the partly destroyed house.