Pat Dollard

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Town was taken over by Al Qaeda last week, and we just hit them…it appears there was specific Al Qaeda leader they were after in the strike, and they are confident they hit him. Will get back with a name when it’s out…

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. military targeted suspected terrorists in a strike launched early on Monday in Dobley, Somalia, a senior U.S. military official said.

The official, who declined to be named, told Reuters: “We launched a deliberate strike against a suspected bed-down of known terrorists.”

He said it was too early to know what damage had been inflicted, including whether any people were injured or killed in the strike launched overnight Washington time (early morning GMT). The official declined to give details on the type of weapon used.

This was the fourth U.S. air strike on Somalia in 14 months.

Local officials and witnesses in Somalia said they believed two missiles hit a makeshift house in Dobley, a town in a remote area of southern Somalia about 140 miles from the port city of Kismayu, in a U.S. air strike against Islamist insurgents.

AP:

Planes fired three missiles at a Somali town held by Al Qaeda-linked terrorists early Monday.

The missiles that struck Dobley, some four miles from the Kenyan border, were from military aircraft, but it was not clear from which country they originated, witnesses said. Remnants of an Islamic force that had once ruled much of southern Somalia took over Dobley last week.

Last year, the U.S. shelled al-Qaida targets in Somalia, one of the most lawless and violent countries in the world.

“We woke up with a loud and big bang and when we came out we found our neighbor’s house completely obliterated as if no house existed here,” a resident of the town, Fatuma Abdullahi, told The Associated Press. “We are taking shelter under trees. Three planes were flying over our heads.”

A police officer who gave only his first name, Siyad, because he was not authorized to speak to the media said the eight wounded were hit by shrapnel. He also said the planes were military aircraft.

An aid worker in Dobley said up to six people were still trapped in the rubble at midday.

“A minimum of two bombs were dropped,” the aid worker, who asked that his name not be used because he is not authorized to speak to the media, told the AP by telephone. “Between four and six people are in the rubble.”

Clan elder Ahmed Nur Dalab said a senior Islamic official, Hassan Turki, was in town Sunday to mediate between his fighters and a militia loyal to the government. Turki’s forces took over Dobley last week.

In early 2007, Somali troops and their Ethiopian allies drove out a radical Islamic group to which Turki is allied that had taken over much of southern Somalia. The Islamic forces have fought to regain power.

Somalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other.