By Sahal Abdulle
Mogadishu - US forces hunting al-Qaeda suspects hit four sites in air strikes in southern Somalia on Wednesday, a Somali government source said, as international criticism mounted over Washington's military intervention.
"As we speak now, the area is being bombarded by the American air force," the source told Reuters.
He said the attacks hit an area close to Ras Kamboni, a coastal village near the Kenyan border where many fugitive Islamists are believed holed-up after being ousted by Ethiopian troops defending Somalia's interim government.
Four places were hit - Hayo, Garer, Bankajirow and Badmadowe, the source said. "Bankajirow was the last Islamist holdout. Bankajirow and Badmadowe were hit hardest," he added.
Pentagon officials confirmed one air attack on Monday, as part of a wider offensive involving Ethiopian planes.
The strike was aimed at an al-Qaeda cell said by Washington to include suspects in the 1998 bombings of US embassies in east Africa and a hotel in Kenya.
Somali officials said many died in Monday's strike - the first overt US military action in Somalia since a disastrous humanitarian mission ended in 1994.
A Somali clan elder reported a second US air strike on Tuesday, but that was not confirmed by other sources.
The US actions were defended by Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, but criticised by others including new UN chief Ban Ki-moon, the European Union, and former colonial power Italy.
"The secretary-general is concerned about the new dimension this kind of action could introduce to the conflict and the possible escalation of hostilities that may result," UN spokesperson Michele Montas said.
Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said Rome opposed "unilateral initiatives that could spark new tensions in an area that is already very destabilised".
Monday's attack on a southern village by an AC-130 plane firing automatic cannon was believed to have killed one of three al Qaeda suspects wanted for the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, a US intelligence official said.
Washington is seeking a handful of al-Qaeda members including Abu Talha al-Sudani, named in grand jury testimony against Osama bin Laden as al Qaeda's east Africa commander.
Critics of the action say it could misfire by creating strong Somali resentment and feeding Islamist militancy.
"Before this, it was just tacit support for Ethiopia. Now the US has fingerprints on the intervention and is going to be held more accountable," said Horn of Africa expert Ken Menkhaus. "This has the potential for a backlash both in Somalia and the region."
Ethiopia sent troops across the border late last year to oust Islamists who had held most of the south since June and threatened to overrun the weak government at its provincial base.
In the capital Mogadishu, residents were woken by gunfire before dawn on Wednesday in an area housing Ethiopian and Somali troops, who were targeted in a rocket attack on Tuesday.
One corpse lay in the street, witnesses said.
In another attack, at least one person was killed on Wednesday when Somali militiamen fired a rocket-propelled grenade at an Ethiopian truck, missing it but hitting a house, a government source said.
Quoting US and French military sources, ABC News said US special forces were working with Ethiopian troops on the ground in operations inside Somalia.
But Interior Minister Hussein Mohamed Aideed denied the report. "There are no American ground forces inside Somalia. The American involvement is limited to air and sea," he said.
President Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi have pledged to restore order in Somalia after entering the capital for the first time since they took office in 2004 at the head of an internationally-recognised interim government.
Both have called for African peacekeepers to help fill a security vacuum that is expected when Ethiopian troops pull out.
"We hope the troops ... will be deployed as soon as possible so these other troops who are in the country leave," said Abdiqassim Salad Hassan, head of a previous transitional government, at a news conference with his successor Yusuf.
Kenya on Wednesday ordered security forces to begin house-to-house searches along the border with its volatile neighbour for any Islamists or illegal immigrants.
"They will be flushed out and anybody hosting them will be arrested," said local provincial commissioner, Kiritu Wamae.
(Additional reporting by Guled Mohamed in Mogadishu, David Morgan and Sue Pleming in Washington, Philip Pullella in Rome, Irwin Arieff in the United Nations, Andrew Cawthorne in Nairobi and Noor Ali in Garissa)