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New strikes aim at Somali targets

U.S. officials confirm one attack, on suspected al-Qaida members.

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published January 10, 2007

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Attack helicopters strafed suspected al-Qaida fighters in southern Somalia on Tuesday, witnesses said, following two days of airstrikes by U.S. forces - the first U.S. offensives in the African country since 18 American soldiers were killed here in 1993.

In Washington, a U.S. intelligence official told the Associated Press that an Air Force AC-130 gunship killed five to 10 people in an attack Sunday on a target in southern Somalia believed to be associated with al-Qaida. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the operation's sensitivity.

Several U.S. officials suggested that stories reaching Mogadishu of many deaths and continuing U.S. attacks had confused the Sunday's airstrike with ongoing operations in the area by Ethiopia's military in support of Somali troops, including helicopters and fixed-wing aircraft, the Washington Post reported in today's editions. But it was impossible to confirm independently any of the differing accounts in Mogadishu or in Washington. Washington officials had no comment on the helicopter strike.

A Somali lawmaker said 31 civilians, including a newlywed couple, died in Tuesday's assault by two helicopters near Afmadow, a town in a forested area close to the Kenyan border. The report could not be independently verified.

A Somali Defense Ministry official described the helicopters as American, but witnesses told the AP they could not make out identification markings on the craft.

The United States is hunting down Islamic extremists, said the Somali defense official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to reporters.

Earlier, Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf said that the United States was pursuing suspects in the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in East Africa, and that the effort has his support.

The United States "has a right to bombard terrorist suspects who attacked its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania," he said.

Somali troops and their Ethiopian allies were attacked in the capital late Tuesday by gunmen riding in two pickup trucks who fired two rocket propelled grenades, witnesses said.

One Somali soldier was killed and two other soldiers and a bystander were wounded, said minibus driver Harun Ahmed, who took the injured to a hospital.

Col. Shino Moalin Nur, a Somali commander, told the AP by telephone late Tuesday that at least one U.S. AC-130 gunship attacked a suspected al-Qaida training camp Sunday on a remote island, Ras Kamboni, at the southern tip of Somalia next to Kenya.

Somali officials said they had reports of many deaths.

On Monday, more U.S. airstrikes were launched against Islamic extremists in Hayi, 30 miles from Afmadow, Nur and witnesses said. Nur said attacks continued Tuesday.

"Nobody can exactly explain what is going on inside these forested areas," the Somali commander said. "However, we are receiving reports that most of the Islamist fighters have died and the rest would be captured soon."

In Washington on Tuesday, Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman spoke of one strike Sunday in southern Somalia, but would not confirm any of the details or say whether any al-Qaida militants were killed.

The assault was based on intelligence "that led us to believe we had principal al-Qaida leaders" in the area, Whitman said.

Somali Islamic extremists are accused of sheltering suspects in the 1998 embassy bombings. U.S. officials also want to ensure the militants no longer pose a threat to Somalia's government.

The aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower has arrived off Somalia's coast and launched intelligence-gathering missions over Somalia, the U.S. military said. It was the first overt military action by the United States in Somalia since it led a U.N. force that intervened in the 1990s in an effort to fight famine. That mission led to clashes and the deaths of 18 U.S. troops.

[Last modified January 10, 2007, 09:21:23]