Listen to Daniel McGrory on the Britons who travelled to Somalia

American intelligence officials said yesterday that airstrikes in Somalia had killed the main al-Qaeda target in Africa, the alleged mastermind behind the bombing of two US embassies.

As international criticism of the raids intensified, an intelligence report claimed that Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, 32, was among a group of terror suspects killed. The US holds Mohammed, who had a $5 million (£2.6 million) bounty on his head, responsible for attacks on embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998 in which 224 people were killed.

The Pentagon denied launching further attacks yesterday despite reports by Somalis of more airstrikes on supposed hideouts of Islamic militants.

Meles Zenawi, the Ethiopian Prime Minister, said that the single US attack had killed eight terrorists and his troops had captured five more. He said that DNA tests would reveal the identities of those killed, but denied that any civilians had died in the US attack.

Tony Blair backed the US action when he told the Commons yesterday that it was right to stand up to extremists who were using violence “to get their way”. The UN Security Council called for the deployment of international peacekeepers in Somalia.

British diplomats expressed frustration at the refusal of Ethiopia to share the passport details of several men who they claim travelled from Britain to fight with the Islamist militia that controlled Somalia until two weeks ago. The Ethiopians have not disclosed where their British captives are being held or what is to become of them.

Somalis in Britain are concerned about the fate of relatives who may have been caught up in the wave of arrests in the country. Community leaders denied claims by the Ethiopians that British-based militants had joined the fight against Somalia’s transitional government. They said that it was an attempt to portray the former government of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) as being backed by al-Qaeda sympathisers.

Abdi Sugulle, leader of the Somali community in Cardiff, said: “We want our British Government to establish if any UK passport holders have really been caught up in these arrests. We have not seen any great movement of young men heeding a patriotic call to go to Somalia to fight, but there are many who are in Somalia on visits or working there. If the Ethiopian claim proves false about Britons being there then they must apologise. We don’t want to see the Somali community in the

UK suffer the same threats and abuse that members of the Pakistani community have after claims of young men joining al-Qaeda and going to training camps abroad.”

US and Ethiopian officials denied reports from Somalis yesterday of new US-led airstrikes on Afmadow town, north of Kismayo, and in the coastal area of Ras Kamboni, where al-Qaeda is said to have training camps.

The UIC denies any links with the al-Qaeda suspects. Regional sources said that Ethiopia had suffered high casualties in a weekend battle with the Islamists and had requested air support, which had killed dozens of innocent civilians.They said that the weak Somali Government was trying to suck America further into the conflict on its side, and pointed to growing unrest in the capital, Mogadishu, where at least 2,000 pro-Islamist supporters are known to be hiding.

Hussein Aideed, the Deputy Prime Minister, said that the combined force of Somalis and Ethiopians needed US special forces to root out the remaining Islamist terrorists. “The only way we are going to kill or capture the surviving al-Qaeda terrorists is for US special forces to go in on the ground,” he said.

Terror toll

10.45am, August 7, 1998 Simultaneous car bombings at US embassies in Tanzania and Kenya kill 224 and wound more than 4,000. Al-Qaeda linked to attack and FBI places Osama bin Laden at top of its most-wanted list

August 20, 1998 US cruise missiles hit pharmaceutical factory in Sudan and terrorist training camp in Afghanistan

May 29, 2001 Four men convicted of plotting the bombings, after largest FBI investigation on foreign soil Source: Times archive

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