Crowds protest U.S. airstrike

More than a thousand people protested a U.S. airstrike last week that killed a militant leader and 24 other people in a central Somali town, organizers said.

The protesters, mostly women and children, in Dusamareeb shouted, “Down with the Bush administration, the so-called superpower!” and “Down with their stooges!”

Town Chairman Mohammed Mohamud Warsame said by telephone that about half of the town’s population of 3,000 had taken part.

Abdi-risaq Moalim Ahmed, the head of education in the town, said three teenage students died and four were seriously injured in Thursday’s airstrike on the house of Aden Hashi Ayro, a leader of the Shabab militia.