US forces are deployed near Somalia to block the escape of members of that country's ousted Islamist government with extremists, a State Department spokesman said last night.
"We would be concerned that no leaders who were members of the Islamic Courts which have ties to terrorist organisations including al-Qaeda are allowed to flee and leave Somalia," he said.
"We of course have a presence off the coast of Somalia and Horn of Africa to make sure there are no escape routes by sea where these individuals could flee," Mr McCormack said.
The Islamists, who deserted their last stronghold on Monday after two weeks of war against Somali government troops backed by Ethiopia, have pledged to fight on after retreating into the hills between the Indian Ocean port of Kismayu and Kenya.
Militiamen fired a rocket at an oil tanker truck near Mogadishu today, wounding several people in the first attack since government forces took the capital last week, a government source said.
The militiamen were manning a checkpoint at Galgalato, 25 kilometres north of the city centre, the source said. The attack occurred on the last day of a three-day deadline for residents of the coastal capital to hand in their guns or be disarmed by force.
Somalia's interim government issued the order after its forces, backed by troops, tanks and warplanes from neighbouring Ethiopia, routed Islamists who had brought some stability to much of the south during its six-month rule.
Many Somalis say they resent the interim government as an Ethiopian puppet that is virtually powerless on its own. They say they have also been scared by the reappearance of gunmen loyal to a host of warlords chased out of Mogadishu by the Islamists in June.
Within hours of the Islamists fleeing the city a week ago, many militia had taken up positions at checkpoints where they used to rob, rape and murder civilians.