“An unknown gunmen carried out four mortar attacks aimed at an Ethiopian base in Darmoley. I have no information of any wounded or dead,” a government source told Reuters by telephone.
Meanwhile, police were interrogating a man over a mortar strike on Mogadishu international airport on Wednesday that injured five people.
“The police have arrested a man suspected to have been behind the attack on the airport. They are questioning him,” government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said.
Many suspect hardcore remnants of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) are behind the attacks, but there are many enemies of the government including warlord and clan militias plus criminals — all armed with military-class weapons.
Dinari also said 23 people, including senior Islamist officials he did not identify, were flown into Mogadishu after having been over to the government by Kenyan authorities, who arrested them attempting to cross the border.
Many fear a slide back to the anarchy Somalia has suffered since warlords ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
President Abdullahi Yusuf’s interim government, formed at peace talks in Kenya in late 2004, is the 14th attempt to end the mayhem since 1991.
But it only set foot in the capital on Dec. 29, with Ethiopian air power and armour at its back, and faces a huge task to tame the city.
It has asked for peacekeeping troops, and the African Union has backed a force of almost 8,000 to replace the withdrawing Ethiopian soldiers — hated by many Somalis because the two nations have been rivals in the Horn of Africa for a millennium.
Uganda, Malawi and Nigeria have pledged troops, while South Africa and Rwanda have ruled out deploying. Mozambique and others are considering contributing.
Gunmen attack Ethiopians for their weapons
KISMAYO, Somalia – Gunmen who killed one Ethiopian soldier and wounded another one on Wednesday fled with AK-47s of the victims, thus fueling the tension between the joint forces that ousted the Islamic group that was in control of Mogadishu for six months and those who resent the invasion of their country by Ethiopian forces, Nasteex Dahir Farah of the Associated Press reported on Saturday.
Ethiopian troops, whose military strength was crucial to helping Somalia’s government drive out a radical Islamic militia,…
…began their withdrawal earlier this week. It was not clear when it would be complete.
Many Somalis resent the presence of Ethiopian troops here; the two countries fought a war in 1977. But without Ethiopia’s tanks and fighter jets, the Somali government could barely assert control outside one town and couldn’t enter the capital, Mogadishu, which was ruled by fighters loyal to the Council of Islamic Courts. The U.S. accused the group of having ties to al-Qaida.
The withdrawal of Ethiopia, which says it cannot afford to maintain troops in Somalia, has begun in advance of the arrival of a proposed African peacekeeping force. The African Union has approved aplan to send about 8,000 peacekeepers for a six-month mission that would eventually be taken over by the U.N.
Meanwhile, a businessman who financed Somalia’s ousted Islamic movement pleaded guilty Thursday in a Nairobi courtroom to being in Kenya illegally, but his attorney argued he shouldn’t be deported because he was fleeing for his life.
Abukar Omar Aden, 72, a well-known commodities trader in the Somali capital Mogadishu, was charged along with his son, Omar Abukar Omar, who served as a finance official for the Council of Islamic Courts. The son said he had a visa for Kenya and denied entering the country illegally.
“They are here becauseof a life-threatening situation, they were running for their lives,” defense attorney James Orengo said.
The two were arrested earlier this month as they tried to cross into Kenya after Ethiopian and Somali forces drove the courts militias from much of Somalia’s south.
Aden, who was paralyzed in a car accident in 2002 and uses a wheelchair, has said he gave money and goods to the Islamic courts movement _ and is believed to have been a major source of funding for the movement. He covered his face from photographers and spat at reporters as he entered the courthouse in Nairobi.
The United States has accused the Islamic group of ties to al-Qaida,but Aden has never been linked to terrorists. Aden and his son are scheduled to appear in court again Monday.
Also on Thursday, a Kenyan police official said U.S. and French citizens suspected of fighting for Somalia’s Islamic movement were arrested by Kenyan police as they crossed into the country.
The men, who were carrying three AK-47 assault rifles, were detained late Wednesday as they crossed into the far northeastern tip of Kenya from Somalia, the police official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media. The area is near a suspected al-Qaida training camp, the official said.
On Wednesday, U.S.defense officials said the United States launched an airstrike by an Air Force AC-130 gunship earlier this week in Somalia against suspected terrorist targets _ the second such attack this month.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the strike was carried out in secret, provided few details and were uncertain whether any militants were killed.
In Washington, Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman declined to confirm any new strike but said that in general the United States is “going to go after al-Qaida in the global war on terrorism wherever it takes us.”
Earlier this month, Ethiopian and U.S. forces pursued three topal-Qaida suspects in southern Somalia, but failed to capture or kill them in an operation that also included an airstrike by an AC-130. The targets included Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, one of three senior al-Qaida members blamed for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.
The U.S. Navy is also patrolling the waters off the Somali coast. U.S. sailors have monitored maritime traffic, boarded suspicious ships and interrogated crews in an attempt to catch fighters trying to escape military operations on shore.
The U.S. ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger, who also represents U.S. interests in Somalia, met Wednesday with a top leaderof the ousted Islamic movement in Nairobi, Kenya, according to an embassy official who refused to elaborate.
Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, considered by American officials a moderate who could contribute to rebuilding Somalia, turned himself in to authorities in Kenya because he apparently was afraid for his life. He is not believed to be wanted by the authorities.
Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, when asked whether he believed Ahmed should be part of the peace process, said: “As far as I know, Sheik Sharif doesn’t represent anybody.”
Zenawi also said “quite a few” Somali fighters captured by his forces were being held in Ethiopia. He declinedto elaborate.
—-
Associated Press writers Robert Burns in Washington, Mohamed Olad Hassan and Mohamed Sheikh Nor in Mogadishu and Les Neuhaus in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, contributed to this report.
Copyright 2007 by the Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.
