Somalia targets survived, U.S. says

"The three high-value targets are still of intense interest to us," said the official, who requested anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

The attack Sunday night by a U.S. Air Force AC-130 gunship killed eight to 10 people believed to be linked to the Al Qaeda terrorist network, the official said.

Previous reports from other U.S. and Somalian sources suggested that the dead might include suspects in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, or the 2002 bombing of a Kenyan seaside resort and a subsequent missile attack against an Israeli airliner.

In an interview Thursday with the BBC's Somalian-language news service, U.S. Ambassador to Kenya Michael E. Ranneberger confirmed that Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who is wanted by the FBI for his alleged role in the 1998 attack, had not been captured or killed.

The senior official said the other two Al Qaeda suspects also remained at large, probably hiding in Somalia.

They are Abu Taha al Sudani of Sudan, who is accused of planning the 2002 Paradise Hotel bombing in Kenya, and Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan of Kenya, also wanted in connection with the hotel attack.

The official said that the three men were not the primary targets of Sunday's attack, which instead was aimed at a separate but significant Al Qaeda operative who was moving with a group of about 20 individuals.

According to some reports, a small number of U.S. special forces were pursuing the suspects in Somalia, but the official denied those reports.

Amid mounting criticism over reports of ongoing U.S. airstrikes and claims that scores of civilians have died, Ranneberger launched a public-relations offensive Thursday, insisting that the U.S. launched only one strike and that there were no civilian casualties.

"It's been troubling to see these reports about bombing and all these activities killing civilians," the ambassador told the BBC. "I can tell you categorically that no civilians were killed or injured as a result of that action."

U.S. involvement in Somalia, its first overt military intervention in the country since 1994, has set off a flurry of criticism and anti-American sentiment throughout East Africa. The banner headline Tuesday in one of Kenya's largest daily newspapers read: "U.S. Warplane Rains Death on Somalia."