Somali President Arrives in Capital

A Transitional Federal Government soldier carrying a rocket-propelled grenade patrols a street in Mogadishu, Sunday. (Mohamed Sheikh Nor - AP)

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Somalia's interim president entered the restive capital Monday for the first time since his election as the U.S. military attacked suspected members of al-Qaida aligned with the former Islamic rulers who retreated from Mogadishu.

President Abdullahi Yusuf's administration is struggling to give the country a functioning government it has lacked since 1991. Yusuf took office in 2004 as head of a transitional administration formed with U.N. help in hopes of restoring order in a country riven by more than a decade of anarchy, but he had spent much of his time outside Somalia because of insecure conditions.

Yusuf's arrival came 10 days after Islamic fighters fled from Mogadishu at the approach of government troops, who had been under attack in their lone stronghold in the west until Ethiopian infantry, tanks and warplanes intervened in the war Dec. 24 and turned the tide.

In Washington, a government official confirmed that the U.S. military launched a strike against several suspected members of al-Qaida in Somalia, using at least one AC-130 gunship. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the operation.

The official did not say where the attack took place. Earlier, a CBS News report citing Pentagon sources said the attack at a site at the southern tip of Somalia targeted the senior al-Qaida leader in East Africa and an al-Qaida operative wanted for his involvement in the 1998 bombings of the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

On Tuesday, Somalia's deputy prime minister told The Associated Press that suspects in the embassy bombing were the targets.

"The U.S. were trying to kill the al-Qaida terrorists who carried out the bomb attacks on their embassies in Kenya and Tanzania," Deputy Prime Minister Hussein Aideed said. "They have our full support for the attacks."

The U.S. had accused the Islamic militia that had controlled Mogadishu until recently of harboring the al-Qaida suspects.

Yusuf's troops and their Ethiopian allies appeared close to defeating the main Islamic force making a stand in a jungle region in the far south that is a suspected al-Qaida base.

Earlier on Monday, the defense minister, Col. Barre "Hirale" Aden Shire, said troops were poised to enter Ras Kamboni, on the southernmost tip of Somalia between the sea and the Kenyan border, after a fierce two-day battle. U.S. warships patrolled off shore and the Kenyan military guarded the border to watch for fleeing militants.

Shire said skirmishes were still taking place outside Ras Kamboni and both sides had suffered heavy casualties.

U.S. officials said after the Sept. 11 attacks that extremists with ties to al-Qaida operated a training camp at Ras Kamboni and al-Qaida members are believed to have visited it. The alleged mastermind of the embassy bombings in East Africa, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, escaped to Ras Kamboni, according to testimony from one of the convicted bombers.