Leading al Qaeda fighter killed in US helicopter attack

American forces are believed to have killed a top al Qaeda suspect in a helicopter raid on a Somalian village.

American officials said special forces had carried out the attack. One told the BBC the operation had been "successful" and that Nabhan was dead.

Reports from the village, near the southern coastal town of Barawe, said two men were killed and two others captured in the attack by six helicopters on two cars said to have been driven by Islamist militants.

Witness Abdi Ahmed said the helicopters buzzed the village before two opened fire. A helicopter landed and left with the two wounded men.

"There was only a burning vehicle and two dead bodies lying beside it," said Mohamed Ali Aden, a bus driver who drove past the scene minutes after the attack.

Other reports said the troops had flown from an American ship. Nabhan's body is believed to have been taken for identification purposes.

There are growing fears that al Qaeda is gaining a foothold in Somalia. The militants were believed to have been from the al Shabab group, which controls Barawe and its surrounding area, 155 miles south of the capital Mogadishu. The US accuses al Shabab of having links to al Qaeda. It has foreign fighters and seeks to overthrow the Somali government and impose a strict form of Islam.

The US is still haunted by the 1993 assault on Mogadishu when its troops serving with the UN were massacred by a warlord's militia- chronicled in the book and film Black Hawk Down - and is trying to neutralise the growing terror threat without sending in ground troops.

Somalia has been ravaged by violence and anarchy since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 then turned on each other. Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, a moderate Islamist, was elected president in January amid hopes that he could unite the country, but violence has continued.