No new U.S. air strikes in Somalia-officials
Source: Reuters
(Adds Pentagon spokesman comment) WASHINGTON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - U.S. officials on Wednesday said there have been no new U.S. air strikes on targets in Somalia since the previously reported operation on Monday, contradicting a report from a Somali government source. The Pentagon on Tuesday confirmed a first U.S. strike against al Qaeda targets occurred on Monday. Strikes have continued in Somalia, according to a Somali government source, but U.S. officials said the United States had not conducted any strikes since Monday. "There have been no additional attacks," said one official. A U.S. defense official said reports of additional U.S. strikes could not be substantiated. U.S. forces have coordinated attacks on al Qaeda in Somalia with Ethiopian forces, according to U.S. government sources. Some of those sources said Ethiopia had conducted the additional attacks in Somalia since Monday's U.S. strike. That strike, and others that Somali sources attribute to U.S. forces, has been criticized by the new chief of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, and former colonial power Italy. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman would not comment on operations in Somalia, or say whether U.S. operations continued. He also would not say whether the U.S. strike on Monday was considered successful. "I'm not going to get into effectiveness. I'm not going to get into battle damage assessments," he said. He called U.S. military involvement "pretty limited." On Somali reports of additional U.S. strikes, Whitman said: "There's a country at war there and I think ... you have to make judgments with respect to what you hear."
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