Ethiopia ‘holding suspects’ after US air strike

[seemslikeadream]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/59ffed1a-a0e4-11db-acff-0000779e2340.html

By Andrew England in Cairo

Published: January 10 2007 20:00 | Last updated: January 10 2007 20:00

Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia’s prime minister, said on Wednesday that a US air strike in southern Somalia on Monday had killed eight suspected militants and wounded five others, who had been captured by Ethiopian forces.

Ethiopia, a key US ally, led an offensive against a Somali Islamist movement and has thousands of troops deployed in its Horn of Africa neighbour, backing Somalia’s transitional government. But reports of fresh air strikes in the south of Somalia on , where Islamist forces are holed up, were denied by US and Ethiopian officials, who said their aircraft had not launched new attacks.

Both Washington and Addis Ababa accuse the Islamic Courts Union, the coalition of Islamist groups that took control of Mogadishu, the Somali capital, last June, of sheltering alleged al-Qaeda members, including three suspects wanted in connection with the 1998 US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, as well as 2002 attacks in Kenya. The ICU denies any links with al-Qaeda.

On Tuesday the Pentagon confirmed that an AC130 aircraft was used to target “the principal al-Qaeda leadership in the region”. The attack in southern Somalia marked the first overt US military intervention in the lawless nation since its doomed invasion in the 1990s.

[Eugene]

1. AP: U.S. reportedly targeted 20 in Somalia

U.S. reportedly targeted 20 in Somalia

By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN, Associated Press Writer

Wed Jan 10, 4:25 PM ET

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Ethiopia's prime minister said Wednesday the U.S. military
targeted 20 high-level members of an Islamic movement linked to al-Qaida in an
airstrike this week in southern Somalia, attacking quickly before the Islamists
could escape.

The chief of staff for the Somali president claimed that a senior al-Qaida figure
was killed in Monday's airstrike, although U.S. officials did not confirm it.

-snip-

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told reporters in his country's capital,
Addis Ababa, that eight suspected terrorists were killed in Monday's airstrike,
five were wounded and taken into custody by Ethiopian forces, and seven
escaped.

Meles said most of the victims were Somali, but the identities would not be
confirmed until DNA testing is completed.

-snip-

Full article: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070110/ap_on_re_af/somalia