Washington/Mogadishu - The US military carried out an
airstrike in a southern Somali town against a suspected al-Qaeda
operative, a US defence official confirmed Monday.
'We launched a precision strike against a known terrorist in
southern Somalia,' the defence official said.
The official did not provide details of the strike that occurred
on Sunday or provide more information about the target. The United
States in the past has attacked al-Qaeda operatives in the Horn of
Africa nation.
White House National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe
said the United States will continue targeting al-Qaeda operatives.
'The United States is going to go after al-Qaeda and al-Qaeda
affiliated operatives wherever we find them,' he said.
The attack reportedly targeted two homes in the town of Dobley
allegedly frequented by senior Islamist leader Hassan Turki, who is
believed to have ties to al-Qaeda. At least six people were killed
in the strike, witnesses said.
'I woke up to loud blasts and flashing lights that shook my doors
and windows. Airplanes were flying at a low altitude and were
firing. I ran outside and hid under trees,' said Saed Abdulle, an
elder in Dobley, which is just north of the border with Kenya.
Turki was in the region to mediate a conflict between his
militias and government security forces, residents said.
Washington has been concerned that Somalia has become a safe
haven and recruiting ground for al-Qaeda, and backed a successful
Ethiopian effort in January 2007 to oust an Islamist group,
known as the Union of Islamic Courts, which had seized power and
isolated Somalia's transitional government.
In the same month, US AC-130 gunships fired on suspected al-Qaeda
agents in southern Somalia.
The ouster sparked an insurgency by remnants of the Islamist
group in the capital Mogadishu, where the transitional government
has been unable to assert its authority. The conflict left more than
one thousand people dead and displaced 600,000.
Hard-line Islamists, including those who helped coordinate the
twin 1998 bombings on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, are
believed to be hiding in Somalia's south.
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