posted January 12, 2007 08:17 PM              

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(AFP Photo) The U.S. air strikes were carried out by AC-130 gunships

Somali government-backed troops and Ethiopian forces began last month an open ended war against fighters of the Union of Islamic Courts to protect the weak, yet internationally recognized transitional government in the African country and the lone stronghold it has in the west of the country.

And earlier this week the U.S. intervened in the fighting, claiming it’s another episode in its so-called war against terrorism.

Mainly Christian Ethiopia, whose parliament authorized the government to take “all necessary” steps against Somalia’s powerful Islamists, has long been concerned over the growing influence of UIC, who seized Mogadishu in June and controlled most of southern and central Somalia.

On the other hand, the U.S. alleges that the Union of Islamic Courts, which introduced law and order to Mogadishu for the first time in 15 years, has ties to Al Qaeda network, using a call by Osama bin Laden's deputy on Muslims to fight Ethiopian troops as an evidence proving its claim.

Days after the U.S. air strikes in Somalia, which sparked worldwide criticism and resulted in the death of many civilians, reports emerged that British passport holders were involved in the fighting.

Somali officials confirmed the death of many people in Monday's strike -- the first overt U.S. military action in Somalia since a disastrous humanitarian mission ended in 1994.

Britain’s The Guardian cited sources saying that support for the Islamists came from the UK.

Also Foreign Office said it launched an investigation into allegations that there were British victims in Somalia as a result of the U.S. bombardment of what the government claimed were Al Qaeda targets in Somalia, according to The Guardian.

Amnesty International sent to the U.S. government expressing concern and echoing warnings by the UN chief Ban Ki-moon, France, the European Union, former colonial power Italy, Egypt and the Arab League.

"We are concerned that civilians may have been killed as a result of a failure to comply with international humanitarian law," said Claudio Cordone, an Amnesty International official.

Lawmaker Abdirashid Mohamed Hidig said that at least 50 people were killed by U.S. and Ethiopian air raids in the African country.

"Yesterday I personally saw the planes striking. The air strikes resumed this morning," Hidig told reporters after returning from a tour of the area.

Even before fighting broke out between the Ethiopian-backed Somali government troops and the Union of Islamic Courts, the Supreme Council of Kenyan Muslims (SUPKEM) accused the United States of lying about alleged plot by Somali Islamists to carry out suicide bombings in Kenya as a pretext to attack Somalia.

The American government claimed that the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Addis Ababa had "reports of terrorist threats emanating from extremist elements within Somalia, which target Kenya, Ethiopia, and other surrounding countries."

"America wants to cause confusion as a pretext to give it reason to once again attack and destroy the Republic of Somalia," SUPKEM chairman Abdulghafur El Busaidy said during a Press Conference.

"Kenyan Muslims strongly condemn ... the U.S. ... (for) putting Somalia and the Union of Islamic Courts as another in its axis of evil," he further stressed.

SUPKEM made it clear that Washington was using the alleged attacks as a ploy to attack and destroy the lawless Horn of Africa state, where the Islamic movement has become increasingly influential.

But officials at the Bush administration accused the Islamists' supreme leader, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, of authorizing the attacks.