The crackdown on veils is a highly symbolic turnaround for Mogadishu after Islamist leaders, who controlled the city in the second half of 2006, had instructed women to wear them.

“Every policeman and government soldier has orders to confiscate veils from veiled women,” senior police officer Ali Nur told Reuters in Mogadishu, saying various recent attacks had been carried out by people in disguise.

“Some of the remnants of the Islamic Courts have been caught wearing veils. During the war, these remnants, pretending to be women, killed so many government troops.”

Somalis are generally moderate Muslims, and most women traditionally cover their heads but not faces. Officials say some suicide attacks have been carried out by men disguised under full face-veils.

Backed by Ethiopia’s military, Somali government forces kicked the Islamists out of Mogadishu over the New Year. They have been facing an insurgency since then that has killed at least 1,300 people since February.

Just days ago, the government declared it had beaten most of the insurgents, but it is still wary of guerrilla-style attacks.

Mogadishu residents said government troops and police had been forcibly removing veils and publicly destroying them.

“Yesterday, so many veils were burnt by the police,” said taxi-driver Abdullahi Mohamed.

A Reuters witness saw some veiled women running away from police on Wednesday.

One girl, 17-year-old Iftin Hussein, said she had left her veil at home to avoid encounters with the police.

“Government troops are unveiling women. Yesterday, I was forced to run away to escape from being unveiled. This is wrong, but we cannot do anything, we are powerless,” she said.

Hidden weapons found during raid

African peacekeepers acting on a tip from a former insurgent in Somalia seized weapons hidden in houses in the southern part of the troubled capital Wednesday, AP quoted an official as saying on Tuesday.

The weapons, which were buried, included 106 anti-tank mines, 48 rocket-propelled grenades, 460 hand grenades and other small arms, said Paddy Ankunda, spokesman for the Ugandan troops acting as peacekeepers in Mogadishu.

“Our troops have found and seized huge number of weapons buried under the ground, following civilian information passed to them,” Ankunda said.

The African Union peacekeepers started to patrol the streets of Mogadishu earlier this month after having been largely confined to their stations at the airport as the city endured some of the worst fighting in 15 years. In late April, the government and its Ethiopian backers launched a crackdown that saw hundreds killed and ended with the government declaring victory over an Islamic insurgency.

Ankunda said a former insurgent passed the information to the African peacekeepers, who then sought the assistance of the government troops and their Ethiopian backers. Uganda has about 1,400 troops in Somalia as the vanguard of a larger African Union peacekeeping force.

So far, Uganda is the only country to contribute to the peacekeeping force. The peacekeepers were met with a surge of violence when they began deploying in Somalia’s capital in March, and had initially kept a low profile.

Witnesses said Ugandan troops backed by Somali and Ethiopian forces conducted search operations in the south of city, where most of the fighting between Islamic insurgents and Ethiopian and Somali troops was concentrated. Ankunda said 150 peacekeepers armed with 16 armored military vehicles participated in the operation.

“The troops have cordoned off the entire area just before dawn and then targeted particular houses, where they discovered weapons,” said resident Mohamed Idle Ibrahim.

Hours later, a woman was killed and another wounded in the city’s busiest Bakaara market when a masked man hurled a hand grenade. At the time, government troops were demolishing vendors’ stalls that have been deemed illegal. Ali Kheyre Abdulle, who owns a shoe shop in the market, said it appeared the grenade was meant for the government troops.