US attack in Somalia killed innocents-Arab League

CAIRO, Jan 10 (Reuters) The Arab League said today US military action in Somalia had killed ''many innocent victims'' and demanded that Washington refrain from such attacks.

Somali officials said US and Ethiopian aircraft struck new targets in Somalia today as they hunted al Qaeda suspects and defeated Islamist fighters.

But US officials said there had been no new US air strikes in Somalia since an operation on Monday, and Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi also said there had been only one US air attack with no civilian casualties.

US government sources said US ally Ethiopia, which defeated Islamist forces in a lightning war last month, had conducted further air strikes since Monday.

In Cairo, the Arab League's Assistant Secretary-General Ahmed Ben Hilli said: ''We demand that these strikes which now target civilians and led to the killing of many innocent victims be stopped.'' ''There was no UN Security Council authorisation for the US forces to hit Somali areas,'' he told reporters.

Ben Hilli also criticised the interim Somali government for backing the air strikes. ''We'd hoped they'd care about for the sovereignty of their country ... instead of calling for foreign intervention,'' he said.

Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf has said the air strikes were justified because they targeted al Qaeda militants.

In late December, the Arab League called for the withdrawal of all foreign forces in Somalia after Ethiopian troops ousted Islamist forces that ruled the capital Mogadishu and large parts of southern Somalia.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit also criticised the air strikes and called on the Somali government to resume talks with the Islamists. President Yusuf said on Monday there would be no negotiations with Islamists.

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