MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) – Hundreds of people shouted anti-American slogans Tuesday in a southern Somali town that was hit a day earlier by a U.S. airstrike targeting an al-Qaida terrorist linked to attacks on U.S. embassies in east Africa.

An aid worker in Dobley, who asked that his name not be used for fear of retribution, said military planes were spotted overhead Tuesday. “There is no new bombing today but the planes are still flying,” he said.

The protesters – mainly women and children – took to the streets in Dobley shouting “Down with the so-called superpower!” and “Down with their stooges!”

Residents and police in Dobley said at least eight people, including four children, were seriously injured when a home was destroyed in Monday’s attack.

In Washington Tuesday, a Pentagon official and a U.S. law enforcement official said the U.S. was going after Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan when it launched at least two Tomahawk missiles from a submarine off the coast of the East African nation on Monday.

They spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk about the subject on the record.

They said they had no information on whether the attack succeeded.

Officials believe Nabhan was connected to the simultaneous August, 1998, bombings of the American embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which killed more than 200 people and were blamed on al-Qaida.

The U.S. military has staged several attacks on suspected extremists in Somalia over the past year. America has been concerned Somalia could become a breeding ground for terrorist groups, particularly after Islamic militants briefly gained control of the south and al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden declared his support for them.

Dobley is just several miles (kilometers) from Kenya, where border agents tightened controls.

The Islamic movement, the Council of Islamic Courts, seized control of much of southern Somalia, including the capital, Mogadishu, in 2006. But in early 2007, troops loyal to the U.N.-backed interim Somali government and the allied Ethiopian army defeated the Islamic group.

The Islamic council now appears to be re-emerging. The United States has repeatedly accused the Islamic group of harboring international terrorists linked to al-Qaida.

The U.S. has avoided sustained military action in Somalia since it led a U.N. force that intervened in the early 1990s in an effort to fight famine. That mission led to clashes between U.N. forces and Somali warlords.

, including a battle in Mogadishu that killed 18 American soldiers.

Somalia has been ravaged by violence and anarchy since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, then turned on each other. The current government was formed with U.N. help in 2004, but it has struggled to assert any real control.

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AP writers Nasteex Dahir Farah in Kismayo, Somalia, and David Ochami in Garissa, Kenya, contributed to this report.

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