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Mortar
attacks in Somalia's capital kill at least 7 |
Feb. 2, 2007
By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN
Associated Press
MOGADISHU, Somalia — Mortar attacks in
Somalia's capital killed at least seven
people and injured 20 in the worst night of
violence since the government took control,
a nurse and residents said today
Late night attacks occurred on Mogadishu's
seaport, a hotel and an Ethiopian military
base, whose troops have provided crucial
support to the government in ousting an
Islamic movement. The Islamic group has
vowed to wage an Iraq-style insurgency.
Deputy Defense Minister Salad Ali Jelle
blamed the attacks on hardline remnants of
the Islamic group, insisting his interim
government is in control.
"We have suspects and we know the areas
where they plan their attacks," he told The
Associated Press by telephone. "We will
punish them."
But the escalating violence in Mogadishu, a
city of more than 2 million people, is
likely to delay the planned deployment of
African peacekeepers who are supposed to
fill the void left by departing Ethiopian
forces and help the government maintain its
tenuous grip on power.
"We were sleeping when two mortars hit our
house here," Barlin Muse Dhere told the AP.
Four people were killed, she said. Ahmed
Abdi, a nurse at a hospital in the north of
the city, said six people were admitted and
two died of their wounds.
Another person died when shells hit a hotel,
witnesses said.
Earlier Thursday, hundreds of supporters of
Somalia's ousted Islamic group demonstrated
in the capital against an imminent
deployment of foreign peacekeepers.
The protesters chanted anti-government
slogans and burned tires, a day after the
African Union said three battalions of
peacekeepers from Uganda and Nigeria were
ready to be deployed in Somalia and would be
airlifted in as soon as possible.
The protesters called for the return of the
Islamic movement, which was credited with
restoring some order in the violent nation.
Factional violence has again become a
feature of life in Mogadishu since last
month when Somali government troops with
crucial support from Ethiopian soldiers,
tanks and war planes ousted the Islamic
movement.
Ethiopia, whose continued presence is deeply
unpopular among Somalis, says it does not
have the resources to stay and already has
begun withdrawing, presenting the
possibility of a dangerous power vacuum.
The African Union was pressing ahead with
its peacekeeping mission to Somalia despite
securing only half the 8,000 troops needed
at a key summit of African leaders that
ended Tuesday. Five nations — Uganda,
Nigeria, Malawi, Burundi and Ghana — have
pledged around 4,000 troops so far.
A U.N. peacekeeping force including American
troops met disaster in Somalia in 1993, when
militiamen shot down two U.S. Army Black
Hawk helicopters and battled U.S. troops,
killing 18.
On Tuesday, extremists in Somalia said they
would try to kill any peacekeepers.
The United States has accused the Council of
Islamic Courts of sheltering suspects in the
1998 al-Qaida bombings of U.S. embassies in
Kenya and Tanzania. Osama Bin Laden has said
Somalia is a battleground in his war on the
West. The U.S. launched two airstrikes
against fleeing Islamic fighters, although
details of the attacks are unknown.
Somalia has not had an effective national
government since 1991, when warlords
overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and
then turned on one another, throwing the
country into anarchy. The transitional
government was formed in 2004 with U.N.
help.
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