US airstrike hits al Qaeda safe house in Somalia

Fazul Abdullah Mohammed. Click to view.

The US military launched an airstrike at an al Qaeda safe house in the town of Dobley in southern Somalia, just four miles from the Kenyan border. "We launched a deliberate strike against a suspected bed-down of known terrorists," a senior US military official told Reuters.

The target of the strike has not been identified at this time, but the US military believes the strike was successful. At least eight were reported killed and six more are reported to be trapped inside the rubble of the safe house.

This is the fourth known US-led airstrike against al Qaeda operatives in Somalia since the Ethiopian operation to drive the Islamic Courts from power was launched in late December 2006. The Ethiopians also launched airstrikes against Islamic Courts fighters who were into Kenya in early January 2007.

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