NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — None of three top suspected terrorists in Somalia was killed in a U.S. airstrike this week, but Somalis with close ties to al-Qaeda were killed, a senior U.S. official in the region said Thursday.

A day earlier, a Somali official had said a U.S. intelligence report had referred to the death of one of the three senior al-Qaeda members believed responsible for bombing U.S. embassies in East Africa in 1998. But U.S. and Ethiopian troops in southern Somalia were still pursuing the three, the U.S. official in Kenya said Thursday on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak on the record.

In Washington, officials had said U.S. special operations forces were in Somalia. U.S. and Somali officials said Wednesday a small American team has been providing military advice to Ethiopian and Somali forces on the ground. The officials provided little detail and spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.

The U.S. forces entered Somalia with Ethiopian forces late last month when Ethiopians launched their attack against a Somali Islamic movement said to be sheltering al-Qaeda figures, one of the officials said.

Abdirizak Hassan, the Somali president's chief of staff, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that al-Qaeda suspect Fazul Abdullah Mohammed was killed. He said he learned of the death in a U.S. intelligence report passed on to the Somali authorities. Fazul, one of the FBI's most wanted terrorists, has evaded capture for eight years.