January 11, 2007	Thursday	Zilhaj 20, 1427

MOGADISHU, Jan 10: The United States launched new air strikes on suspected Al Qaeda sites in southern Somalia on Wednesday, Somali officials and clan elders said, but results of such operation remained unclear.

Amid growing concern about the impact of the first overt US military interventions into the lawless country since the early 1990s, officials said it was unclear if strikes that began on Monday had hit their targets.

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council was to discuss the deployment of African peacekeepers to back the weak Somali government which, with the help of Ethiopian troops, ousted Islamists from Mogadishu two weeks ago after heavy fighting.

In the capital, senior Somali officials said US aircraft staged new raids in the south, a day after Washington confirmed Monday's air strike aimed at senior Al Qaeda operatives believed hiding there.

“There were more air strikes by the United States and they shall continue until terrorists are eliminated from that part of Somalia,” Somali Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Aidid told AFP.

A second top Somali official confirmed the hits and said areas “suspected of being hideouts for the Islamists and their foreign fighters” were hit, although a Pentagon official in Washington denied knowledge of any new strikes.

Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said his troops had gone in after “20 terrorists” were attacked from the air on Monday, but seven of the targets had got away.

“Eight are dead and there are five wounded terrorists now under the control of our troops,” Meles said, urging the United States “not to expand the scope of their action in Somalia. Let our troops on the ground deal with the situation”.

The second Somali official said villages in Badade and Afmadow districts near the Kenyan border were hit twice “in several locations,” attacks confirmed by local clan elders by radio.

However, Somali Information Minister Ali Jama said he was unaware of any air operations other than those by Ethiopian forces who last month spearheaded the Somali government's offensive against Islamist fighters.

There was no hard information about whether those hit included the main targets: Al-Qaeda operatives blamed for 1998 bombings of the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Somali elders said at least 19 people had died in the first US attacks but Somali and US officials both refused to confirm reports that suspected embassy bombing mastermind Fazul Abdullah Mohammed was killed.

In Washington, two US officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the identities of those killed were still unconfirmed, with one saying “I don't have anything to support that,” when asked about Fazul.

Fazul -- a Comoran wanted for the embassy bombings that killed 224 people, mostly African -- is among several Al Qaeda members believed to be seeking refuge with Islamists in Somalia.

Others include Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a Kenyan accused in the embassy attacks, and Abu Taha al-Sudani, a Sudanese alleged to be an explosives expert close to Osama bin Laden and whom the Somali government claimed led Islamist fighters in recent battles.The reports of the fresh strikes came amid criticism of US military action by some European officials and Iran and backing from Washington's traditional allies.

Iran condemned the strike as a violation of international law, the United Nations condemned action that could worsen conflict in the Horn of Africa and the African Union urged restraint.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon warned against the “new dimension this kind of action could introduce to the conflict”. British Prime Minister Tony Blair and European Commission Vice President Franco Frattini on Wednesday backed the US campaign against Al Qaeda in Somalia, after the EU executive condemned the air strikes.—AFP