Ethiopian, U.S. Pursue Somalia al-Qaida

Troops walk in a deserted street Wednesday, Jan 10, 2007, in Mogadishu, Somalia the morning after a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at Ethiopian troops, Tuesday night, in the south of the capital. The grenade missed the target and hit a house, injuring two civilians, a local resident, Khadija Muhyadin, said. (AP Photo/Mohamed Sheikh Nor) (Mohamed Sheikh Nor - AP)

Earlier this week, police at the Kenyan coastal border town of Kiunga arrested the wives and children of two of the embassy bombing suspects after they managed to slip across the frontier, according to an internal police report seen by The Associated Press on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Somali and Ethiopian forces skirmished with Islamic militiamen in the far south of Somalia on Thursday as part of mop-up operations against the fighters.

One resident in the area, Mosa Aden Hersi, said there were numerous militant and civilian casualties in the fighting. "We saw the dead bodies of 17 men in military uniform under a small hill, but we do not know their identity," he said by two-way radio.

The remote, forested area has few residents and high-frequency radio is the only reliable form of communications.

The Ethiopian Information Ministry said its military had also launched helicopter and troop attacks around the town of Dhobley, about four miles from the Kenyan border.

A Somali human rights group said Thursday that thousands of Somalis fleeing the fighting were now stranded on the Kenyan border, which has been closed.

"Thousands are in a bad condition and they do not have food and water. They are stranded at the border after Kenya closed it and they cannot go back to their houses for two reasons: the ongoing airstrikes and lack of transportation," said Ali Bashi, chairman of the Fanole group.

The Red Cross said more than 850 wounded people, both civilians and soldiers, have been treated at medical facilities since fighting began last month.

Somalia has not had an effective central government since clan-based warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other. The interim government was established with the help of the United Nations in 2004.

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Associated Press writers Lolita C. Baldor and Pauline Jelinek in Washington; Salad Duhul and Mohamed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu, Somalia; and Nasteex Dahir Farah in Kismayo, Somalia, contributed to this report.