U.S. again strikes in Somalia
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MOGADISHU, SOMALIA — The United States has conducted a second airstrike in Somalia, U.S. officials said Wednesday.
The new strike, carried out this week, came two weeks after an AC-130 plane killed what Washington said were eight Al Qaeda-affiliated fighters hiding among holdout Islamist rebels pushed to Somalia’s southern tip by Ethiopian and Somalian government forces.
One official said the targets this week were part of the Islamic Courts Union, the militant group defeated by government troops with the backing of the Ethiopian military late last year. A second source said the target was an Al Qaeda operative.
There was no official confirmation of the strike from the Defense or State departments and no statement on whether anyone targeted was killed.
The U.S. believes Somalian Islamists have aided Al Qaeda members accused of bombing U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 and an Israeli-owned hotel in Kenya in 2002.
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