ARAB-US RELATIONS - Jan 9 - US Confirms Air Strikes In Somalia Conflict.

US officials confirm it launched weekend air strikes against alleged al-Qaeda leaders in Somalia, marking Washington's first direct engagement in the Horn of Africa conflict. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the target of a strike by an AC130 aircraft was "the principal al-Qaeda leadership in the region". The attacks occurred in the country's south, where Ethiopian and Somali government troops are battling retreating Islamist militants. The attack marked the first overt US military intervention in Somalia since a disastrous peacekeeping mission that ended in 1994. Whitman said the strikes were based on "credible intelligence" but would not comment on their success. Somali officials said Monday's raids took place around an area known as Ras Kamboni and targeted "fundamentalists" but there were local reports that civilians as well as Islamic fighters were killed. There were also reports from within Somalia that US helicopters launched fresh attacks but Abdirahman Dinari, a Somali government spokesman, said these could not be confirmed. Fighting was continuing in the remote area between an estimated 600 Islamists and Ethiopian and Somali government forces, he told the FT. US officials believe high-level al-Qaeda operatives have fled the capital Mogadishu since Ethiopia poured thousands of troops into its neighbour in a bid to crush Islamist forces and install a UN-backed transitional government. The European Commission criticised the US strike, saying it could set back efforts to reach a deal between Somalia's provisional government and moderate Islamists. "We need a political process which is inclusive in order to bring about stability", said a spokesman for Louis Michel, EU development Commissioner. "Any incident of this kind is not helpful in the long term. "Both Addis Ababa and Washington accuse the Islamic Courts Union, which last year took over a large swathe of southern Somalia. Washington has also given tacit support to the invasion by Ethiopia, a regional US ally. The Islamists have repeatedly denied links to Al Qaeda. Washington alleges that three suspects believed to be involved in the 1998 US embassy bombings in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, as well as a 2002 attack on a hotel in Kenya, were hiding in Somalia. They include Fazul Abdullah Muhammad, a Comorian who is on the FBI's most wanted terrorist list. The other two are a Kenyan and a Sudanese national. Earlier this year, Washington backed a coalition of warlords in Mogadishu in its bid to capture the suspects and is alleged to have paid tens of thousands of dollars to the faction leaders later driven out by the Islamists. The US Central Command said on Jan 10 it had deployed an aircraft carrier off the Somali coast. Other US ships have been patrolling Somalia's coastline, Africa's longest, to prevent Islamists fleeing by sea. Asked if the US had informed the Somali government about the air assault, Dinari said: We have good communications and we are collaborating with each other".