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US airstrikes in Somalia target bomber suspects

Two US airstrikes in Somalia killed large numbers of Islamic extremists, government officials and 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 250km 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 on Dec. 24 in support of the government and have begun flying intelligence-gathering missions over Somalia.

Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf told journalists in Mogadishu that the US "has a right to bombard terrorist suspects who attacked its embassies in Kenya and Tanzania."

On Monday, Yusuf had entered the restive capital for the first time since his election.

Somali Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Aideed told reporters the US had "our full support for the attacks."

But others in the capital said the attacks would only increase anti-US 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 neighboring Ethiopia, which has a large Christian population and has fought two brutal wars with Somalia, most recently in 1977.

One US attack took place on Monday afternoon on Badmadow island. The area is known as Ras Kamboni and is suspected to be a terror training base. Ethiopian and Somali troops had over the last few days cornered the main Islamic force in Ras Kamboni, with US warships patrolling off shore and the Kenyan military guarding the border to watch for fleeing militants.

The AC-130, a four engine turboprop driven aircraft, is armed with 40mm cannon that fire 120 rounds per minute and a 105mm cannon, normally a field artillery weapon. The plane's latest version, the AC-130U, known as "Spooky," also carries Gatling gun-type 20mm cannon. The gunships were designed primarily for battlefield use to place saturated fire on massed troops.
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