U.S. Strikes Al Qaeda Targets in Somalia

WASHINGTON, Jan. 8, 2006 — -- An AC-130 gunship carried out a strike against high-value al Qaeda targets in Somalia, who were believed to be linked to the 1998 embassy bombings that killed hundreds of people, a U.S. official told ABC News.

The gunship struck at the targets after they left Mogadishu as the pro-Islamic government began to fall to Somali government forces. The move made it easier to track the targets as they entered the thinly populated border region, according to the U.S. official.

The official said there were fatalities in the attack, but it's unclear whether the high-value targets were killed.

The FBI lists five suspects for the embassy bombings, including Fazul Mohammad "Haroon," who was one of the ringleaders of the attacks, although it is unclear if these suspects were being tracked in this military effort.

The Somali government began to route Islamic forces from the region last week.

Another official confirmed that the USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier was sent from the Persian Gulf to the coast of Somalia to assist with security operations there and remained in international waters.

Earlier in the week, two other U.S. Navy vessels were off the coast of Somalia to look for al Qaeda targets that might attempt to flee by ship.

ABC News' Luis Martinez and Chris Isham contributed to this report.