BBC: US Somali air strikes 'kill many'

BBC NEWS | Africa | US Somali air strikes 'kill many': "The US is carrying out further air strikes in southern Somalia against Islamist fighters, who the US believes include members of an al-Qaeda cell.

The targets were reported to have been tracked by aerial reconnaissance and then attacked by a US gunship launched from a US military base in Djibouti.

The US says Somali Islamists sheltered al-Qaeda operatives linked to the 1998 US embassy bombings in East Africa.

The Somali transitional government says many people were killed in the raid.

The air strikes are taking place just a few days after the Union of Islamic Courts, which had taken control of much of central and southern Somalia during the past six months, was routed by soldiers from Ethiopia and Somalia's transitional government."