THE ZAWAHIRI INTIATIVE?:

Somali official says U.S. helicopter gunships launch new attacks on al-Qaeda (Mohamed Olad Hassan, January 9, 2007, ASSOCIATED PRESS)

U.S. helicopter gunships launched new attacks Tuesday against suspected al-Qaeda members, a Somali official said, a day after American forces launched airstrikes in the first offensive in the African country since 18 U.S. troops were killed there in 1993.

Jordanian security forces killed a suspected Al-Qaeda militant and captured another in a shootout in northern Jordan, state-run television reported and security officials said.

Some security forces were hurt in the operation lasting more than four hours, in which intelligence agents and police took part after a tip-off that Al-Qaeda militants were plotting attacks inside the country, reports said.

"An Al-Qaeda terrorist was killed and another was captured in Irbid" around 90 kilometers (56 miles) north of the capital Amman, television said quoting a security official.