(Adds details) MOGADISHU, Jan 9 (Reuters) - U.S. warplanes killed between 22 and 27 people in southern Somalia on Tuesday in what appeared to be a second air strike aimed at al Qaeda suspects thought to be in the area, an elder from a neighbouring town said. "U.S. planes struck at Bankajirow this morning between 10 a.m. and noon (0700-0900 GMT). I think the U.S planes saw donkey carts crossing the grazing land and thought it was the Islamists trying to flee," the elder told Reuters by telephone. The elder from Afmadow town, who declined to be named for fear of reprisals, spoke to Reuters by telephone from the Kenya-Somalia border crossing at Liboi. An unknown number of people also died when U.S. warplanes attacked the village of Hayo on Monday in a hunt for three al Qaeda suspects thought to be in Somalia, a government source said. Hayo and Bankajirow are between Afmadow and Doble, areas near the Kenyan border where the Somali government and allied Ethiopian forces believe Islamists fled after being chased across south Somalia in a two-week war last month. The elder -- a traditional leader in Somali culture -- said the Islamists were not in the area under attack but about 240 km (150 miles) further south at Ras Kamboni, a suspected hideout for militants at the southernmost tip of Somalia. "People don't understand why the Americans have bombed the field. The Islamists are not there, they are miles away," he said. Local people have fled the area but are unable to cross the sealed Kenyan border, he added. The Pentagon has declined to comment on the air strikes. There have also been reports of helicopter attacks. Somali officials have declined to say whether the attacks were carried out by U.S. or Ethiopian aircraft.
