US launches new air strike on Somalia: Report
MOGADISHU, Jan 24 (Agencies): A U.S.
Air Force AC-130 gunship has launched a second air strike against suspected al-Qaeda operatives in southern Somalia, a leading American newspaper reported on Wednesday, citing unidentified U.S.
No confirmation of Monday's reported attack was immediately available in the region and a Pentagon spokesman declined to comment.
The newspaper said there was no information on the results or the specific targets of the strike.
An AC-130 gunship two weeks ago attacked what Washington said were al-Qaeda agents fleeing with Islamist forces defeated by Somali government and Ethiopian troops late last month.
It was the first overt U.S.
action in Somalia since the end of a disastrous peacekeeping mission in 1994.
Somali government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said he was not aware of a second U.S.
Washington believes Somali Islamists harbored al-Qaeda members accused of bombing two U.S.
embassies and an Israeli-owned hotel in east Africa.
Any prolonged U.S.
intervention in Somalia would be sure to inflame political passions there, joining the chorus of Muslims who see the "war on terror" as a crusade against Islam.
A freelance Somali journalist said on Sunday he had seen U.S.
troops on the ground in south Somalia working with Ethiopian forces hunting fugitive Islamists.
Ethiopia vehemently denied the report.
Rumors have swirled for days that U.S.
personnel were inside Somalia since the January 8 strike but there has been no official confirmation of a U.S.
ground presence.
Mortars were fired at Mogadishu airport on Wednesday, killing one person and injuring another after a U.N.
delegation arrived in the Somali capital, a government source said.
delegation just arrived and as soon as they left the plane, two mortar shells hit the airport," the source said.
"One person was killed while another was injured," the source said, adding the victims were Somalis.
Development Programme delegation was taken to an agency compound.
A spate of attacks, mainly against Ethiopian troops backing Somalia's interim government, have rocked the capital since they helped oust Islamists from Mogadishu and much of the south they had controlled for six months in a lightning December offensive.
The Islamists and some foreign supporters have vowed to wage guerrilla war against Ethiopian troops in the country, and many Somalis suspect their militants have been behind the attacks.
Pakistan to build Rs.2.25 billion medical tower for bureaucrats ISLAMABAD, Jan.24 (Agencies): Medical and health services in Pakistan capital Islamabad are set to receive a major boost with the federal government giving the green signal for the construction of a 14-floor medical tower, which will leave the government exchequer poorer by 2.25 billion Pakistani rupees.
The medical tower will be built on the premises of the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) and promises to provide 2,000 new jobs in addition to state-of-the-art health facilities.
The ground breaking project was performed by Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz earlier this week.
Spread over an area of three-and-a-half acres, the building will have a total of 14 floors and another two in the basement.
It will have 360 beds for general patients and 140 beds for private patients.
Forty percent of the beds in various categories would be reserved for government servants.
Health Minister Muhammad Nasir Khan pointed out that the tower would have urogynaecology, stem cell research and molecular biology facilities, which the country does not have currently.
The building will also provide for Institutional-Based Practice (IBP), allowing consultants working at PIMS to practise privately in specially-designed OPD clinics.
"This tower is yet another example of the progress we have made in the last seven years.
Our continuity and direction has paid off," the Daily Times quoted Aziz as saying.
"We have always encouraged the private sector to play a role and will continue to support any new initiatives in future," he added.