US air strikes 'leave 100 dead'
2007-01-11 14:53
Mogadishu - Clan elders and residents of southern Somalia said on Thursday that about 100 civilians were killed this week in the United States and Ethiopian air strikes on suspected al-Qaeda targets in the region.
There was no way to independently confirm the toll, which residents had earlier placed at 19, but elders and residents in villages hit near the Kenyan border said the civilian death count was high.
Sheikh Abdullahi Ali Malabon, an elder in the Afmadow area, one of several struck by at least one US air raid on Monday and several others believed to have been launched by Ethiopian helicopters, said 100 bodies had been counted.
He said: "We have sent a team to assess the causalities there and they have confirmed more than 100 people killed. Many others were wounded but we don't have an exact number."