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US confirms Somali missile strike
The US military has confirmed that it carried out a pre-dawn missile strike which killed a senior leader of an Islamist militant group in Somalia.
A spokesman said the target of the attack in the town of Dusamareb was an al-Qaeda leader, but would not name him or say whether it had been successful.
The strike hit the home of Aden Hashi Ayro, the military head of al-Shabab, which controls much of Somalia.
At least 10 other people, including another al-Shabab leader, also died.
But local elders have said up to 30 bodies have been recovered from the scene, according to unconfirmed reports.
'Militia leader'
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the US Central Command confirmed it had attacked al-Qaeda militants in Somalia, but would not say whether it was an air strike nor name the intended target.
"It was an attack. If we say too much then we give away platforms and things that we use," CentCom spokesman Bob Prucha told the Associated Press.
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The strike hit the home of Aden Hashi Ayro, the military head of al-Shabab, which controls much of Somalia.
At least 10 other people, including another al-Shabab leader, also died.
But local elders have said up to 30 bodies have been recovered from the scene, according to unconfirmed reports.
'Militia leader'
Speaking to reporters on Thursday, the US Central Command confirmed it had attacked al-Qaeda militants in Somalia, but would not say whether it was an air strike nor name the intended target.
"It was an attack. If we say too much then we give away platforms and things that we use," CentCom spokesman Bob Prucha told the Associated Press.
More
For more information:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7378502.stm
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U.S. missiles destroyed the house of Aden Hashi Ayro in the central Somali town of Dusamareeb on Thursday in the first major success in a string of such U.S. military attacks over the past year.
Ayro's assassination comes amid escalating fighting and a spiraling humanitarian crisis in the country that has killed thousands of civilians and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes in the past year.
"This will not deter us from prosecuting our holy war against Allah's enemy," Sheik Muqtar Robow, a spokesman for the al-Shabab militia that Ayro led, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. "If Ayro is dead those he trained are still in place and ready to avenge against the enemy of Allah.
"We know our enemy. It is impossible to hit missiles on our people and we let your citizens come to our country," he said, adding: "We warn them to stay out of our country."
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http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jG7cUMNiE55gJVZnvsAxLR411VGQD90DL67O1
Aden Hashi Ayro, who led al Shabaab militants blamed for attacks on government troops and their Ethiopian allies, died on Thursday in the latest of a string of U.S. air strikes on Islamist insurgents in the last year.
"This is not a personal cause but a national one. It will go on whether people die or not. Somalis should continue the struggle against the Ethiopian colonisation," senior Islamist leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a former mentor to the slain militant, told Reuters.
"Dying is an honour at the moment. He (Ayro) played his role and died honourably," Aweys added in a telephone interview from Eritrea, where he lives in exile.
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http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL02841302
"It will not stop our operations," Robow said. "We will double our attacks, and I call for all Islamist fighters to strengthen their holy war."
The militants are fighting to regain power from a United Nations-backed transitional government put in place after a U.S.-backed invasion by Ethiopia drove them off.
The attack has damaged the UN peace negotiations that offered a slim hope of bringing together the disparate groups in the armed opposition, said Rashid Abdi, an analyst at the International Crisis Group.
"However much the Americans claim the war on terror is one thing and the peace process is another thing, it's not that clear-cut," Abdi said. "This will definitely have political repercussions."
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Jakaya Kikwete and Yoweri Museveni, Uganda's president, agreed during a meeting on Friday on "the need for more troops for AMISOM, and appealed to the countries that pledged troops to fulfil their pledges".
The call came amid fears of violence following a US air raid on a town in the centre of the country which killed a senior commander of the al-Shabaab armed opposition movement.
Al-Shabaab has vowed revenge and other opposition leaders have said the strike puts peace talks in jeopardy.
Sheikh Mohamoud Ibrahim Suley of the Islamic Courts Union, which was forced from Somalia by transitional government and Ethiopian forces in late 2006, condemned the attack which killed Aden Hashi Ayro.
Somalis 'united'
Al-Shabaab had been the military of the Islamic Courts while they controlled the capital Mogadishu and much of the south of the country for about six months.
"This attack was cowardly and aggressive. We condemn the international, Arab and Islamic communities' silence," he told Al Jazeera.
"These bombs are making Somalis more united. These people do not need bombs, they need international humanitarian help.
""It is good for America to stop, if America continues what it is doing they will reap the harvest of thecrop they have sown."
The country has been without a fully functioning government since the overthrow of Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991.
Attacks stepped up
In recent months opposition fighters have stepped up their attacks on transitional government forces and their Ethiopian backers.
Ali Musa, a local human rights activist, told Al Jazeera that at least 8,552 people have been killed in fighting since the Islamic Courts Union was forced out of Mogadishu in late 2006.
A coalition of opposition groups, the Alliance for Liberation and Reconstitution of Somalia, said after Thursday's bombing in the town of Dusamareeb that it was considering pulling out of peace talks scheduled for May 10.
AMISOM has been deployed in Somalia since March 2007 and should eventually number about 8,000 troops. It is currently made up of 1,650 Ugandan troops and 850 soldiers from Burundi.
http://english.aljazeera.net/NR/exeres/4D4CF852-2F61-44C3-A459-F846D360899A.htm