"It wasn't any of the Al-Qaeda East Africa guys," the official said.

The Pentagon refused to confirm or deny that an AC-130 gunship carried out a strike in southern Somalia for the second time this month.

"There will be times when there are activities and operations I can talk about, and there will be other times when I just won't have anything for you," said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. "And I don't have anything for you on Somalia."

Whitman had previously confirmed an initial strike in southern Somalia on January 8 that also was aimed at suspected Al-Qaeda leaders in the turbulent region.

The US official said it was "doubtful" that the first strike "got any of the big guys."

While not confirming a second strike, Whitman said, "We're going to go after Al-Qaeda in the war on terror where it takes us."

"We'll work closely and in cooperation with countries around the world to include this region, but the very nature of some of our operations are not conducive to public discussion," he said.

The Washington Post cited unnamed US officials as saying the AC-130 gunship was operating in close cooperation with Ethiopian forces.

Ethiopian troops entered Somalia last month to help the weak Somali government against the country's rising Islamist movement accused by many of harboring some members of Al-Qaeda.

The Ethiopians have conducted ground and air assaults in the same area, and share intelligence and operational information with the US forces, according to the Post.

earlier related report
Ethiopia's exit adds to Somalia pressure

The first departure by Ethiopian troops from Somalia is adding to the pressure get an African Union peacekeeping force into Mogadishu to maintain security.

A statement from the Ethiopian foreign ministry Tuesday said their military, in booting Islamic extremists from Mogadishu at the end of last year, had acted to remove a "clear and present danger to Ethiopia's security.

"That mission has now been completed," the statement said. The Shabelle Media Network reported from Mogadishu that Ethiopian Gen. Seum Hagoss said about 50 truckloads of troops along with tanks and armored vehicles were on their way home and said the pull-out would be complete within a matter of weeks.

Hussein Mohammed Farah Aided, the deputy prime minister of Somalia's internationally backed but internally weak Transitional Federal Government, which was installed by the Ethiopian military, told reporters Tuesday the first peacekeepers would arrive in three days, Shabelle said.

That prediction was not in line with the projections of analysts.

David Shinn, a former senior U.S. diplomat in the region who now follows events there from a teaching post at George Washington University told United Press International last week that it would take a minimum of two months to arrange troop numbers, logistics and funding for a serious force.

Jendayi Frazer, the State Department official in charge of relations with the region, suggested last week that an early deployment of a small, symbolic force might precede the arrival of serious numbers of peacekeepers.

Uganda and Malawi are the only countries to have pledged forces so far, though Shabelle quoted Aideed as saying that Nigerian troops would also be among those arriving this week and that three other countries including Libya and South Africa would be contributing.

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