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A senior Al-Qaida suspect wanted for bombing US embassies in East Africa was killed by US airstrikes, a Somali official said Wednesday as witnesses said US forces launched a third day of strikes.

The death of al-Qaida suspect Fazul Abdullah Mohammed was detailed in an American intelligence report passed on to the Somali authorities. Mohammed, one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists who has evaded capture for eight years, was allegedly harbored by a Somali Islamic movement that had challenged this country's Ethiopian-backed government for power.

"I have received a report from the American side chronicling the targets and list of damage," said Abdirizak Hassan, the Somali president's chief of staff. "One of the items they were claiming was that Fazul Abdullah Mohammed is dead."

In Washington, a US intelligence official said on Tuesday the US killed five to 10 people believed to be associated with Al-Qaida. The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the operation's sensitivity, said a small number of others present, perhaps four or five, were wounded.

Mohammed, 32, joined al-Qaida in Afghanistan and trained there with Osama bin Laden, the terror network's leader, according to the transcript of an FBI interrogation of a known associate. He has a US$5 million price on his head for allegedly planning the 1998 attacks on the US Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 225 people.

He is also suspected of planning the car bombing of a beach resort in Kenya and the near simultaneous attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner in 2002. Ten Kenyans and three Israelis were killed in the blast at the hotel. The missiles missed the airliner.

Police at the Kenyan coastal border town of Kiunga on Monday arrested a wife of Mohammed, with her three children, according to an internal police report Wednesday.
 
64 civilians reportedly died

Somali officials said many died in Monday's strike the first overt US military action in Somalia since a disastrous humanitarian mission ended in 1994.

In three days of attacks near Afmadow, a town in a forested area close to the Kenyan border, traditional elder Haji Farah Qorshel said 64 civilians had been killed and 100 injured. There was no independent confirmation of his claim.

Somalia's Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Aideed said US special forces are needed on the ground as government forces backed by Ethiopia are unable to capture the last remaining hideouts of suspected extremists.

No American troops are yet believed to be in Somalia, Aideed said, but covert operations on the ground may be under way. "As far as we are aware they are not on the ground yet, but it is only a matter of time," he said.

Criticism on strikes

The US actions were defended by Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, but criticised by others including new UN chief Ban Ki-moon, the European Union, and former colonial power Italy.

"The secretary-general is concerned about the new dimension this kind of action could introduce to the conflict and the possible escalation of hostilities that may result," UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said.

Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said Rome opposed "unilateral initiatives that could spark new tensions in an area that is already very destabilised".

Critics of the action say it could misfire by creating strong Somali resentment and feeding Islamist militancy.

"Before this, it was just tacit support for Ethiopia. Now the US has fingerprints on the intervention and is going to be held more accountable," said Horn of Africa expert Ken Menkhaus. "This has the potential for a backlash both in Somalia and the region."

(China Daily via agencies January 11, 2007)