NASSIR Posted October 10, 2005 NAIROBI, Oct 9 (Reuters) - Gunmen shot dead a Somali army colonel in Mogadishu in the latest in a string of assassinations of soldiers and policemen in the chaotic capital, residents said on Sunday. Col. Mohamed Mohamud Raghe was shot in the head, chest and stomach by three unidentified assailants on Friday as he walked to a pharmacy after noon prayers at a mosque, residents and relatives said by telephone from the coastal city. Raghe was the latest of about a dozen security experts murdered by gunmen in the past three months in killings seen by residents as signs of opposition to a Transitional Federal Government (TFG) set up at peace talks in Kenya last year. Raghe was helping to train militiamen recruited from around the Horn of Africa country by TFG President Abdullahi Yusuf in recent months in order to create a national security force following the government's relocation from Kenya. Experts argue the gunmen who have carried out the killings are exploiting a climate of confrontation and impunity created by months of bickering between Ethiopian-backed Yusuf and a group of Mogadishu-based cabinet ministers who dislike his rule. As long as political crisis continues to paralyse efforts to restore government to the country, the capital's lawlessness will fester, giving free rein to anyone who seeks to sabotage the peace process, diplomats and Somali commentators say. Somalia collapsed into chaos after the overthrow of military ruler Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991. Conflict and famine have killed hundreds of thousands of people since then. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
