Somali government confirms US air strike in Somalia

Jan 9, 2007, 9:26 GMT

Washington/Nairobi - The Somali government confirmed Tuesday that the United States had carried out an airstrike against a suspected al-Qaeda cell in southern Somalia, reports said.

One of those responsible for the attack on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 was killed in the attack near the Kenyan border, said a close aide of Prime Minister Ali Gedi, according to a Washington Post report.

Abdirisak Hassan also said Somali officials authorized the strike. 'We gave permission for actions that are more than airstrikes,' he told the Post in an interview conducted early Tuesday.

An AC-130 gunship flying from Djibouti carried out the attack in southern Somalia after US intelligence tracked the operatives with an unmanned aerial drone, CBS news first reported Monday.

A spokesman for the Combined Joint Task Force, responsible for the US fight against terrorism, would not comment.

'We have no information,' she said.

The target was a village near the Kenyan border. One of the targets was believed to be al-Qaeda's senior leader in East Africa. The Washington Post report cited unnamed US sources as saying the leader may have been killed, although this could not be independently confirmed.

The US had expressed concern that Somalia could become a staging ground for terrorists. Last week State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the US had stationed forces off the coast of Somalia and was working with other countries in the region to ensure that Islamists linked to terrorism are not able to flee the country.