U.S. special operations forces have launched a pair of airstrikes on Somalia. Many people are believed to have died. One man told the Associated Press that his four-year-old son was among the dead. The strikes hit the region of Ras Kamboni, just north of the Kenyan border. The Pentagon says the target of the strikes were members of al-Qaeda connected to the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. The attack comes just weeks after U.S.-backed Ethiopian forces invaded Somalia and overthrew the Islamic Courts Union. The attack is the first overt U.S. military action in Somalia since American troops departed the country in 1994 following the infamous “Black Hawk Down” attack. According to news reports, the U.S. military used unmanned aerial drones to carry out surveillance in Somalia. Once they identified the potential targets, the aircraft carrier Eisenhower moved out of the Persian Gulf toward Somalia. An AC-130 gunship operated by the U.S. Special Operations Command carried out the attack. Reports have also emerged that suggest U.S. special forces and CIA paramilitary teams are now directly embedded with Ethiopian forces in Somalia. Earlier this year, the CIA began quietly making cash payments to a group of Somali warlords who pledged to help hunt down members of al-Qaeda. Publicly the U.S. claims it does not back Somali warlords.

Jendayi Frazer, the U.S. assistant secretary of state for Africa: “We do not want to return to warlordism in Somalia. We don’t support it, we don’t want it, the people don’t want it, and their neighbors don’t want it. So those individuals who are characterized as warlords should join the process of national inclusive dialogue and join the process of having a peaceful Somalia. They should turn in their weapons. They should have their militias go away or join the legitimate institutions of the government.”