New US-Ethiopian strikes hit south Somalia

MOGADISHU, Jan 10 (Reuters) US and Ethiopian aircraft struck new targets in Somalia today as they hunted al Qaeda suspects and defeated Islamist fighters cornered in a remote southern region, Somali officials said.

A government source and a local lawmaker said US planes struck several sites today after an assault on Monday against a village where the suspects were thought to be hiding.

The Pentagon has acknowledged only the first attack and the Somali officials did not say how they distinguished between US and Ethiopian planes operating in the same area.

The US action has provoked wide international criticism.

Lawmaker Abdirashid Mohamed Hidig said after touring the region in an Ethiopian helicopter that at least 50 people were killed by US and Ethiopian air strikes.

The government source said four new US strikes hit areas near Ras Kamboni, a coastal village close to the Kenyan border long thought by Western and east African intelligence agencies to be a hideout and training camp for Islamic militants.

''As we speak now, the area is being bombarded by the American air force,'' said the source, talking to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The areas struck were Hayo, Garer, Bankajirow and Badmadowe, he said. ''Bankajirow was the last Islamist holdout. Bankajirow and Badmadowe were hit hardest''.

Hidig told reporters: ''Yesterday I personally saw the planes striking. The air strikes resumed this morning.'' He spoke in the port of Kismayu after returning from a tour of the area.

''The worst loss has befallen civilians since the fleeing Islamists are hiding among the people there,'' he said.

US officials said Monday's strike targeted an al Qaeda cell that includes suspects in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania and a 2002 attack on an Israeli-owned Kenyan hotel.

Somali officials said many died in Monday's strike -- the first overt US military action in Somalia since a disastrous humanitarian mission ended in 1994.

A clan elder reported a US air strike yesterday at Bankajirow, but that was not confirmed by other sources.

The US actions were defended by Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, but criticised by new UN chief Ban Ki-moon, France, the European Union, former colonial power Italy, Egypt and the Arab League.

''The secretary-general is concerned about the new dimension this kind of action could introduce to the conflict and the possible escalation of hostilities that may result,'' UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said.

EMBASSY BOMBINGS Monday's US attack by an AC-130 plane firing automatic cannons was believed to have killed one of three al Qaeda suspects wanted for the embassy bombings, a US intelligence official said.

Washington is seeking a handful of al Qaeda members including Abu Talha al-Sudani, a Sudanese who US intelligence believes is the network's east Africa boss, and Comorian Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, on the FBI's most wanted terrorist list.

The FBI has offered 5 million dollars for the capture of Mohammed, indicted in a US court for his alleged role in the embassy bombings. In Mohammed's hometown of Moroni, his family waited anxiously for news of his fate.

''We had to keep a night vigil in the hope of getting a telephone call,'' one of Fazul's relatives told Reuters.

Critics of the US attack say it could create a backlash by fuelling Somali resentment and Islamist militancy.

''Before this, it was just tacit support for Ethiopia. Now the US has fingerprints on the intervention and is going to be held more accountable,'' said US regional expert Ken Menkhaus.

Ethiopia sent thousands of troops across the border last month to oust Islamists who had held sway over most of the south, including the capital Mogadishu, for six months and threatened to overrun the weak government in its base of Baidoa.

Mogadishu residents were woken by gunfire before dawn today in an area housing Ethiopian and Somali troops, who were targeted in a rocket attack yesterday.

In another attack, at least one person was killed wednesday when Somali militiamen fired a rocket-propelled grenade at an Ethiopian truck, missing it but hitting a house, a government source said.

President Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi have pledged to restore order in anarchic Somalia after their internationally-recognised government was able to enter Mogadishu for the first time since its formation in late 2004.

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