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US Somali air strikes 'kill many'
The US has carried out at least two air strikes in southern Somalia targeting Islamist fighters, who the US believes include members of an al-Qaeda cell.
The militias were reported to have been tracked by aerial reconnaissance and then attacked by a US gunship launched from a US military base in Djibouti.
The US says Somali Islamists sheltered al-Qaeda operatives linked to the 1998 US embassy bombings in East Africa.
The Somali transitional government says many people were killed in the raid.
The air strikes are taking place just a few days after the Union of Islamic Courts, which had taken control of much of central and southern Somalia during the past six months, was routed by soldiers from Ethiopia and Somalia's transitional government.
The US accuses the Islamists of having links to al-Qaeda - charges they deny.
A Pentagon spokesman, Bryan Whitman, confirmed that the US struck southern Somalia on Sunday, and said the target was al-Qaeda leadership believed to be in the area.
'Boy killed'
Witnesses told the BBC Somali service that areas near the town of Afmadow were being bombed on Tuesday.
They report hearing heavy firing in a number of areas and have seen military helicopters flying overhead.
On Monday, the nearby village of Hayo was bombed.
"My four-year-old boy was killed in the strike," Mohamed Mahmud Burale told the BBC from the area.
Local MP Abdulkadir Haji Mohamoud Dhagane told the BBC that 27 people, mostly civilians, had been killed near Afmadow.
"Thousands of Somalis are caught between the rock and hard place as they are in the middle of air strikes, Ethiopian tanks and the Kenyan soldiers who have blocked the border," he said.
Afmadow is 250km north of Ras Kamboni, close to the Kenyan border, where Islamist fighters have been attacked by Ethiopian and government forces.
The island of Badmado off Ras Kamboni was also hit by air strikes on Monday afternoon.
The bombing is the first overt military action by the US in Somalia since 1994, the year after 18 US troops were killed in Mogadishu.
The attack was carried out by an Air Force AC-130, a heavily-armed gunship that has highly effective detection equipment and can work under the cover of darkness.
Credible reports suggest that the Ethiopian air force has set up a base in Kismayo, with two MiG fighters and four helicopter gunships, which may be taking part in the raids.
More
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6243459.stm
The US says Somali Islamists sheltered al-Qaeda operatives linked to the 1998 US embassy bombings in East Africa.
The Somali transitional government says many people were killed in the raid.
The air strikes are taking place just a few days after the Union of Islamic Courts, which had taken control of much of central and southern Somalia during the past six months, was routed by soldiers from Ethiopia and Somalia's transitional government.
The US accuses the Islamists of having links to al-Qaeda - charges they deny.
A Pentagon spokesman, Bryan Whitman, confirmed that the US struck southern Somalia on Sunday, and said the target was al-Qaeda leadership believed to be in the area.
'Boy killed'
Witnesses told the BBC Somali service that areas near the town of Afmadow were being bombed on Tuesday.
They report hearing heavy firing in a number of areas and have seen military helicopters flying overhead.
On Monday, the nearby village of Hayo was bombed.
"My four-year-old boy was killed in the strike," Mohamed Mahmud Burale told the BBC from the area.
Local MP Abdulkadir Haji Mohamoud Dhagane told the BBC that 27 people, mostly civilians, had been killed near Afmadow.
"Thousands of Somalis are caught between the rock and hard place as they are in the middle of air strikes, Ethiopian tanks and the Kenyan soldiers who have blocked the border," he said.
Afmadow is 250km north of Ras Kamboni, close to the Kenyan border, where Islamist fighters have been attacked by Ethiopian and government forces.
The island of Badmado off Ras Kamboni was also hit by air strikes on Monday afternoon.
The bombing is the first overt military action by the US in Somalia since 1994, the year after 18 US troops were killed in Mogadishu.
The attack was carried out by an Air Force AC-130, a heavily-armed gunship that has highly effective detection equipment and can work under the cover of darkness.
Credible reports suggest that the Ethiopian air force has set up a base in Kismayo, with two MiG fighters and four helicopter gunships, which may be taking part in the raids.
More
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6243459.stm
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Abdirahman Dinari, a Somalia government spokesman, confirmed the offensive on Tuesday.
A US official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said at least one AC-130 gunship was used in the attack.
Dinari told AFP: "We know that a US gunship raided targets of al-Qaeda in southern Somalia sometime yesterday afternoon.
"The target was a small village called Badel where the terrorists were hiding. And the gunship did hit on the exact target."
More
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/068C7A74-4D2A-4E6F-8546-B6E062C1AFC2.htm
An AC130 warplane strafed the village of Hayo near the Kenyan border late yesterday afternoon leaving "many dead", according to the Somali government. Ras Kamboni, on the country's southernmost tip, was also said to have been hit.
There were also reports today of two further strikes by helicopter gunships, but it was unclear whether these were US or Ethiopian operations.
More
http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,,1986350,00.html
It wants to intervene decisively on the side of the transitional government now back in Mogadishu and to get at three al-Qaeda suspects linked to bombings of its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and attacks on an Israeli-owned hotel and airliner in Kenya in 2002.
The air strikes were carried out by a huge AC-130 gunship in the south of the country where supporters of the Union of Islamic Courts have retreated under attack from the Ethiopian army and soldiers of the transitional government.
US aircraft have carried out reconnaissance flights over Somalia and it is believed that the US provided Ethiopian forces with intelligence support during the recent offensive.
At the same time, US warships have been patrolling the Somali coast to prevent any escape by sea.
US aim
The strategy is to ensure that the Islamist fighters do not regroup and pose a threat to the government.
Only last week a statement believed to be from al-Qaeda's number two Ayman al-Zawahiri urged Muslims to "rise up to aid their Muslim brethren in Somalia".
The Americans and their Somali and Ethiopian allies therefore feared a guerrilla war that might threaten efforts to establish the new government. They are determined to stop the Islamic Courts from resuming power.
More
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6244097.stm
The attacks, by an AC-130 gunship, came after the terror suspects were spotted hiding on a remote island on the southern tip of Somalia, close to the Kenyan border, Somali officials said. The island and a site 155 miles north were hit.
One US attack took place yesterday afternoon on Badmadow island. The area is known as Ras Kamboni and is suspected to be a terror training base. Ethiopian and Somali troops had over the last days cornered the main Islamic force in Ras Kamboni, with US warships patrolling off shore and the Kenyan military guarding the border to watch for fleeing militants.
Witnesses said at least four civilians were killed in another attack 30 miles east of Afmadow town, including a small boy. The claims could not be independently verified.
"My four-year-old boy was killed in the strike," Mohamed Mahmud Burale told the AP by telephone. "We also heard 14 massive explosions."
The AC-130, a four engine turboprop-driven aircraft, is armed with 40 mm cannon that fire 120 rounds per minute and a 105 mm cannon, normally a field artillery weapon. The plane's latest version, the AC-130U, known as " Spooky," also carries Gatling gun-type 20 mm cannon. The gunships were designed primarily for battlefield use to place saturated fire on massed troops.
More
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2137783.ece