Somalia has been embroiled in clan-based warfare since the 1991 collapse of a military dictatorship. In recent weeks, violence has shifted from Mogadishu, where thousands of Ethiopian troops continue to occupy the capital, to the countryside.
Last week, as many as 18 government troops were killed in an ambush by insurgents in Dinsor, near Baidoa, according to local officials and insurgent leaders.
Remnants of the Islamic Courts Union, an alliance of religious leaders that was chased from Mogadishu in 2006, have joined forces with a group of opposition leaders living in exile in Eritrea. They have vowed to drive out Ethiopian forces from Somalia and topple the fragile transitional government.
Recently appointed Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein has been attempting to negotiate with leaders from Islamist factions and opposition groups to end the violence, but so far little progress has been reported.
Monday's strike followed similar U.S. attacks last year, in January and June, against suspected militants. In the January attack, military officials said they were targeting Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, who the FBI believes had a role in the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam.
He was not killed, officials later confirmed.
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edmund.sanders@latimes.com
Times staff writers Julian E. Barnes in Washington and James Gerstenzang aboard Air Force One and a special correspondent in Mogadishu contributed to this report.
