US airstrikes in Somalia kill many

MOGADISHU – Two US airstrikes in Somalia killed large numbers of Islamic extremists and government officials, witnesses said yesterday.

The targets were suspects in the bombings of two US embassies in East Africa in 1998. 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 250 kilometres north were hit.It was the first overt military action by the US in Somalia since the 1990s and the legacy of a botched intervention – known as “Black Hawk Down” – that left 18 US servicemen dead.The US military said yesterday it had sent an aircraft carrier to join three other US warships conducting anti-terror operations off the Somali coast.US warships have been seeking to capture al Qaeda members thought to be fleeing Somalia after Ethiopia invaded December 24 in support of the government and have begun flying intelligence-gathering missions over Somalia.President Abdullahi Yusuf told journalists in the capital, Mogadishu, that the US “has a right to bombard terrorist suspects who attacked its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.”Monday, Yusuf had entered the restive capital for the first time since his election.Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Aideed told The Associated Press the US had “our full support for the attacks.”But others in the capital said the attacks would only increase anti-American sentiment in the largely Muslim country.”US involvement in the fighting in our country is completely wrong,” said Sahro Ahmed, a 37-year-old mother of five.Already, many people in predominantly Muslim Somalia had resented the presence of troops from neighbouring Ethiopia, which has a large Christian population and has fought two brutal wars with Somalia, most recently in 1977.Ethiopia forces had invaded Somalia to prevent an Islamic movement from ousting the weak, internationally recognised government from its lone stronghold in the west of the country.The US and Ethiopia both accuse the Islamic group of harbouring extremists, among them al Qaeda suspects.Ethiopian troops, tanks and warplanes took just 10 days to drive the Islamic group from the capital, Mogadishu, and other key towns.Nampa-APThe 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 250 kilometres north were hit.It was the first overt military action by the US in Somalia since the 1990s and the legacy of a botched intervention – known as “Black Hawk Down” – that left 18 US servicemen dead.The US military said yesterday it had sent an aircraft carrier to join three other US warships conducting anti-terror operations off the Somali coast.US warships have been seeking to capture al Qaeda members thought to be fleeing Somalia after Ethiopia invaded December 24 in support of the government and have begun flying intelligence-gathering missions over Somalia.President Abdullahi Yusuf told journalists in the capital, Mogadishu, that the US “has a right to bombard terrorist suspects who attacked its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.”Monday, Yusuf had entered the restive capital for the first time since his election.Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Aideed told The Associated Press the US had “our full support for the attacks.”But others in the capital said the attacks would only increase anti-American sentiment in the largely Muslim country.”US involvement in the fighting in our country is completely wrong,” said Sahro Ahmed, a 37-year-old mother of five.Already, many people in predominantly Muslim Somalia had resented the presence of troops from neighbouring Ethiopia, which has a large Christian population and has fought two brutal wars with Somalia, most recently in 1977.Ethiopia forces had invaded Somalia to prevent an Islamic movement from ousting the weak, internationally recognised government from its lone stronghold in the west of the country.The US and Ethiopia both accuse the Islamic group of harbouring extremists, among them al Qaeda suspects.Ethiopian troops, tanks and warplanes took just 10 days to drive the Islamic group from the capital, Mogadishu, and other key towns.Nampa-AP