Doubt persists on al-Qaeda casualties in Somalia strike

By William Wallis in Addis Ababa

Published: February 5 2007 02:00 | Last updated: February 5 2007

Ethiopia is working closely with the US to identify Islamist combatants killed in neighbouring Somalia, but there has been no confirmation yet of the death of targeted al-Qaeda suspects, according to Meles Zenawi, Ethiopia's prime minister.

Mr Meles said the US had been assisting with DNA testing on suspects killed in recent fighting, including a US air strike on Somalia last month.

Bloodied papers had been found belonging to Aden Hashi Ayro, the leader of the militant Somali al-Shabaab militia who Washington believes protected leaders of an east African al-Qaeda cell that bombed US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. But reported sightings suggested he may have survived, Mr Meles said.

Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys and Hassan Turki, two hardline leaders of the Islamic Courts Union, whose expanding rule over southern Somalia prompted Ethiopia's invasion in December, were "alive and moving in and out of Kenya on the border", Mr Meles said. "We do not have definite information on a number of the key al-Qaeda targets. There are reports that one or two of them might have died but we have no confirmation."

During its six-month rule last year, the ICU coalition of Islamists provided the first semblance of law and order in southern Somalia since the 1991 overthrow of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre. Ethiopia invaded Somalia after leaders with alleged links to al-Qaeda threatened a regional jihad.

At the time, critics feared Ethiopian involvement in installing the weak UN-backed Transitional Federal Government would enflame religious tensions and provide a rallying cry for international jihadists.

Some of the defeated Islamists have threatened an insurgency and there has been a series of attacks on Ethiopian and allied troops in Mogadishu in recent days.

Mr Meles played down the risk of escalation. "If the TFG manages to pull off the plans it has for national reconciliation . . then the remnants of the Islamic Courts and international jihadists will be politically marginalised."

Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2007