UNSC has no questions on Somalia raid
MOGADISHU: Somali clan elders and residents of southern Somalia said Thursday that about 100 civilians were killed this week in US and Ethiopian air strikes on suspected Al Qaeda targets in the region.
There was no way to independently confirm the toll, and it was unclear if the sources were referring to the same areas hit by at least one US air raid on Monday, and others believed to have been launched by Ethiopian helicopters. Sheikh Abdullahi Ali Malabon, an elder in the Afmadow area, one of several said 100 bodies had been counted.
“We have sent a team to assess the casualties there and they have confirmed more than 100 people killed,” he told AFP by phone from the remote area. “Many others were wounded but we don’t have an exact number.”
Closer to the Kenyan border, in between the villages of Afmadow and Dhobley, residents and elders also spoke of at least 100 civilian deaths but stressed they had only yet accounted for 29 bodies, some burned beyond recognition.
No questions: The 15-nation Security Council raised no questions or objections on Wednesday after a US diplomat briefed the UN body on an air strike by Washington against an Al Qaeda target in Somalia.
“There was no discussion of this particular issue and I have no comment on that,” Russian UN Ambassador Vitaly Churkin, the council president for January, told reporters after a closed-door meeting on Somalia.
“Nobody. No reference, except the United States itself,” said Chinese Deputy UN Ambassador Liu Zhenmin. US envoy Jackie Sanders said she confirmed during the session that the strike on Monday had targeted “a high-level Al Qaeda leader.” agencies
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