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Somali
police shoot two suspects in kidnappings of French
journalists, MSF workers |
BYLINE: By
MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN, Associated Press Writer
DATELINE: MOGADISHU Somalia
BODY:
Police in northern Somalia shot dead two
suspected kidnappers and one officer was
killed during a heavy gunbattle Thursday,
witnesses and officials said.
The two men shot in the semiautonomous
region of Puntland were suspected of
involvement in the recent kidnappings of a
French journalist and two aid workers from
Spain and Argentina, police said. All three
hostages have been released.
Muqtar Ahmed, a local resident, said police
raided a house where the kidnappers were
belived to have been hiding.
Local government official Yusuf Bide said
the police found the kidnappers through a
tip-off. He said it was the same gang who
last month abducted a French cameraman in
one incident and in another a Spaniard and
an Argentinean working for medical charity
Medecins sans Frontieres.
A police officer, who spoke on condition of
anonymity because he was not authorized to
speak to the press, said police had been on
the gang's trail for several days. A
gunfight broke out after they surrounded the
house and several of the suspected
kidnappers escaped after clan members came
to their aid, he said.
Puntland's police chief, Col. Abdiaziz Said
Gamey vowed to pursue the gang until all of
them were brought to trial.
"We have captured several people, some of
them gunmen and others who wanted to help
them sneak out of the house," he said. "One
policeman was killed and six others were
wounded during the gunbattle."
Puntland is generally considered safer than
the war-wracked south, where government
troops and their Ethiopian allies are
battling an Islamic insurgency and thousands
of Somalis have been killed this year. But
in recent months the two northern regions
have seen an upsurge in piracy and
kidnappings, and tensions between the two
have increased over a border dispute.
Impoverished Somalia has not had a
functioning government since warlords
overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in a
1991 coup and then turned their clan-based
militias on each other.
LOAD-DATE: January 10, 2008 |
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