Helicopters strafe al-Qaida in Somalia
(AP)Updated: 2007-01-10 06:33
Somali Islamic extremists are accused of sheltering suspects in the 1998 embassy bombings. American officials also want to ensure the militants no longer pose a threat to Somalia's UN-backed transitional government.
The aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower has arrived off Somalia's coast and launched intelligence-gathering missions over Somalia, the US military said. Three other US warships were conducting anti-terror operations.
US warships have been seeking to capture al-Qaida members thought to be fleeing Somalia by sea after Ethiopia's military invaded Dec. 24 in support of the interim Somali government. The offensive drove the Islamic militia out of much of southern Somalia, including the capital Mogadishu, and toward the Kenyan border.
President Abdullahi Yusuf, head of the UN-backed transitional government, told journalists in Mogadishu that the US "has a right to bombard terrorist suspects who attacked its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania."
Other Somalis in the capital said the attacks would increase anti-American sentiment in their largely Muslim country. Many Somalis are already upset by the presence of troops from neighboring Ethiopia, which has a large Christian population.
The US Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, on Tuesday reissued a terror warning to Americans living in or visiting the Horn of Africa.
It was the first overt military action by the US in Somalia since it led a UN force that intervened in the 1990s in an effort to fight famine. The mission led to clashes between UN forces and Somali warlords, including the battle, chronicled in the book and movie "Black Hawk Down," that killed 18 US soldiers.
Mohamed Mahmud Burale told the AP by telephone that at least four civilians were killed Monday evening in Hayi, including his young son. His report could not be independently verified.
Government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said it was not known how many people were killed, "but we understand there were a lot of casualties. Most were Islamic fighters."
Another attack by an AC-130 gunship reportedly occurred Monday afternoon on Badmadow island, in a group of six rocky islands known as Ras Kamboni - a suspected terrorist training base.
Thickets provide dense cover and the only road to the area is virtually impassable, locals said.
The US military's main target on the island was thought to be Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who allegedly planned the 1998 attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 225 people.
Leaders of Somalia's Islamic movement have vowed from their hideouts to launch an Iraq-style guerrilla war, and al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden's deputy has called on militants to carry out suicide attacks on Ethiopian troops.
In an interview published Tuesday in the French newspaper Le Monde, Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said that suspected terrorists from Canada, Britain, Pakistan and elsewhere were among those captured or killed during recent military operations.
Somalia has not had an effective central government since warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. The warlords turned on each other, creating chaos in the nation of 7 million people.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said he told UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon that a UN peacekeeping force may be needed to guarantee security and stability in Somalia.
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