Somali govt says plane crash looks like accident

[N.O.R.F]

Somali govt says plane crash looks like accident

By Sahal Abdulle

 

MOGADISHU, March 24 (Reuters) - Somalia's government said on Saturday a plane crash that killed 11 people appeared to be an accident and not a missile attack from insurgents who have been launching daily guerrilla-style attacks in Mogadishu.

 

Both a local Somali radio and and Islamist Web site said a missile hit the Russian-made Ilyushin just after takeoff from Mogadishu airport on Friday afternoon.

 

But witnesses who saw the plane burning in the sky and then crashing could not confirm that it had been shot.

 

Interior Minister Mohamed Mahamud Guled said the incident had the hallmarks of a technical fault but investigations were under way to confirm exactly what happened.

 

"The plane took off at around five o'clock and as soon as it reached 10,000 feet altitude, the pilot reported an engine problem in engine number two and said he would turn back to the airport," he told a news conference.

 

"We are waiting for technical experts."

 

Only one of the 11 people on board -- the crew plus engineers believed to be nationals of Russia or Belarus -- initially survived the crash. He was found wandering dazed among the dead bodies and wreckage, but died overnight in hospital.

 

The plane had brought a team to fix a damaged plane used by African peacekeepers in Mogadishu.

 

The accident came after three days of the worst violence since a war over the New Year that ousted militant Islamists in charge of south Somalia for the previous six months.

 

Insurgents believed to be a mixture of Islamists and disgruntled clan militia have been striking daily against the government, Ethiopian soldiers, and a contingent of 1,200 Ugandan soldiers in the vanguard of the African Union force.

 

At least 20 people have died and hundreds more have been wounded in the fighting since Wednesday. Thousands have fled Mogadishu.

 

Residents say the latest violence coincides with a government-led disarmament drive resisted by Mogadishu's dominant ****** clan, many of whom regard it as an attempt by the president, from the rival ***** clan, to marginalise them.

 

President Abdullahi Yusuf's government says it wants to secure the gun-infested city before a reconciliation conference scheduled for April 16.

 

Interior Minister Guled said the government had not yet confirmed the nationalities of those who died in Friday's crash. But he urged the plane's owners and families of the victims to arrange removal of the bodies or allow their burial.

 

"We do not have any means of preserving the bodies," he said. Most Somalis are Muslims and bury their dead as soon as possible in accordance with Islam.

 

Reuters