The U.S. Air Force carried out air strikes in southern Somalia Monday, aimed at eliminating members of al Qaeda. The attack has come under criticism from the United Nations, and European and Arab countries.
Ismail Hurre said, "America helped us prevent militants of al Qaeda and the Islamic courts that support it from sending additional forces and new fighters into Somali territory."
The U.S. said Thursday the attack had failed to eliminate the three al Qaeda suspects being targeted, but said 10 people linked to the terrorist group had been killed. The search for the militants continues.
The Somali minister also said the U.S. is helping the country to prevent disbanded militant forces from escaping Somalia by sea, or through the borders to Kenya and Ethiopia.
He said militants ousted from the country's central region by troops of the transitional government and Ethiopia had "headed for the border with Kenya," and that the U.S. air strike had been aimed at preventing such a development.
The formation of Somalia's transitional government is the 14th attempt to establish order in the east African nation, which has been plagued by lawlessness and violence since the 1991 deposition of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
Monday's air attack was the Pentagon's first open military action in Somalia since 1994.
The U.S. claims the three targeted al Qaeda leaders masterminded terrorist attacks against U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, which killed over 200 people.
The Somali foreign minister also said the transitional government is grateful to neighboring Ethiopia for its support in fighting Islamist groups, and hopes peacekeepers from the east African region will soon be deployed.
"There are now good conditions for fulfilling UN Security Council Resolution 1725, and bringing Somalia out of the crisis," he said, adding that the resolution envisions "deploying a contingent of African peacekeepers in Somalia in the first stage, and a UN contingent in the next stage, to return security and stability to the country."
Hurre said Kenya is holding intensive consultations with other countries in the region on the deployment of peacekeepers.
The diplomat said Ethiopian troops had entered Somalia on a request from the transitional government to help fight Islamic court militias.
"Ethiopian troops, acting together with transitional government troops, managed to successfully accomplish their set task, attacking Islamist positions and ousting Islamic courts from the Somali capital, Mogadishu," he said.
On December 28, 2006, Islamic court militias, under pressure from Ethiopian and pro-governmental troops, left Mogadishu, and Prime Minister Mohamed Gedi returned to the government palace.
Hurre also said Somalia had asked the international community to back the country's initiatives to strengthen central government and build national accord.
The U.S. charge d'affaires in Moscow, Daniel Russell, met Thursday with Russian deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Saltanov and exchanged opinions on the situation in Somalia.
Saltanov said his ministry urged any military action on Somali territory to be taken only with the consent of Somalia's internationally recognized Transitional Federal Government.
The two diplomats agreed to resume dialogue on the situation in Somalia and the Horn of Africa, and means of stabilizing it as soon as possible.
