Addis Ababa — US helicopters launched fresh air strikes yesterday in southern Somalia, targeting the suspected command centre of Al Qaeda militants, a Somali Defence Ministry official told AFP.

The attack came a day after an AC-130 gunship hit at least two villages believed to be hideouts for Al Qaeda militants. The fresh attack, by at least two helicopters, "was aimed at destroying the command and control facility of the terrorists," the official who declined to be identified told the news agency.

Ali Said Yusuf Mohamed, a resident of Afmadow, a town about 420 kilometers (260 miles) southwest of Mogadishu, said two helicopters flew over and "dropped some bombs" on a nearby village.

Mohamed could not identify the aircrafts but the defence ministry confirmed they were US military helicopters.

Government officials reported many died in the attack carried out on Monday by the gunship, an armed variant of the C-130 Hercules transport plane, designed for close air support.

"Many people were killed and I think the terrorists were eliminated," Information Minister Ali Jama told AFP.

"Absolutely, a lot of people were killed," government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said. "So many dead people were lying in the area, we do not know who is who, but the raid was a success."

President Abdullahi Yusuf defended the raids which came after the Somali Ayr subclan - believed to be sheltering the Al Qaeda operatives - allegedly refused to disclose the location of three suspects being sought by Washington for attacks.

Bombing suspects Fazul Abdullah Mohamed, a native of the Comoros Islands, Kenyan Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan and a Sudanese national, Abu Taha al-Sudan, are all hiding among the Somali Islamists, according to US officials.

The trios are accused of organizing the 1998 bombing of the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es-Salaam, killing at least 224 people, most of them Africans.

"The Americans had a right to carry out the air strikes on some Al Qaeda members," Yusuf told reporters in Mogadishu.

"Those who carried out attacks on the US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania were there, so it was the right thing and the right time to carry out such strikes," Yusuf said.

"The Americans are cracking down on Al Qaeda terrorists all over the world and this was part of it," he added.