US Fires Missiles at al-Qaeda Target in Somalia

The US military has fired missiles at a terror target in southern Somalia, CNN reports. The strike destroyed two houses, killing three women and three children and wounding 20 others, a local commissioner reports. A US official says the strike was aimed at a "facility where there were known terrorists" associated with al-Qaeda.

"We woke up with a loud and big bang and when we came out we found our neighbor's house completely obliterated, as if no house existed here," says a resident of the town where the missiles hit. The US military says that the strike was as precise as possible, and that great care was taken to avoid hitting civilians. (More Somalia stories.)