Terrorist suspects carrying British passports were reported to have been arrested last night after fleeing the American airstrikes in Somalia.

The suspects were among 11 people held by Kenyan antiterrorist police as American special forces joined the hunt for key al-Qaeda suspects responsible for a string of terror attacks in East Africa.

Hundreds of US troops were dropped by helicopter from warships off the coast of Somalia after officials were forced to admit their airstrikes had failed to kill their main targets.

Local residents said that US teams were involved in heavy fighting around the town of Hayo, which is said to be the suspects’ main base near the Kenyan border.

It is the first US military ground action in Somalia since the infamous “Black Hawk Down” incident of October 1993 when 18 American servicemen died.

One local who watched the US-led action told The Times: “Many civilians, including children, have been killed.”

Ethiopian officials, whose troops are reportedly fighting alongside the US special forces, confirmed that the American troops had landed in large numbers.

US diplomatic sources in the region last night denied that troops were on the ground but said that the operation to track down the missing al-Qaeda suspects was continuing.

Michael Ranneberger, the US Ambassador to Kenya and Somalia, admitted that among those who escaped was Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, the suspected mastermind of bomb attacks on two US embassies in East Africa in 1998 in which 226 died.

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