U.S. Hunts for Key Terrorists in Somalia

A FBI most wanted poster of Fazul Abdullah Mohammed who has been indicted by a U.S. Feberal court for his involvement in the 1998 U.S. embassy attacks in Kenya and neighboring Tanzania, displayed on the FBI's website Friday, March 21, 2003. Mohammed a senior al-Qaida suspect was reported killed by the recent U.S. air strikes in Somalia. Abdirizak Hassan, the Somali president's chief of staff, told The Associated Press Wednesday Jan. 10, 2006 that Somali leaders had received a U.S. report that included a claim that "that Fazul Abdullah Mohammed is dead." At least three U.S. airstrikes have been launched in the country, Hassan added. (AP Photo) (AP)

NAIROBI, Kenya -- None of the top three suspected terrorists in Somalia were killed in a U.S. airstrike this week, but Somalis with close ties to al-Qaida were slain, a senior U.S. official in the region said Thursday.

A day earlier, a Somali official had said a U.S. intelligence report had referred to the death of Fazul Abdullah Mohammed _ one of the three senior al-Qaida members believed responsible for bombing U.S. embassies in East Africa.

But U.S. and Ethiopian troops in southern Somalia were still pursuing the three, the U.S. official said Thursday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record to the media.