the beating was a case of mistaken identity

[Jacpher]

Mogadishu airport shelled

 

At least two people have been killed after a barrage of mortar shells was fired into Mogadishu's main airport shortly after a UN plane landed there.

 

The attack in the Somali capital came 15 minutes after a nine-member UN delegation arrived at the airport from Kenya on Wednesday, but there was no indication it was the target.

 

 

 

 

Passengers and workers at the airport panicked as two of the mortars landed inside the terminal.

 

Mohammed Abdi said: "We heard the first shell behind us, and then another one struck the ground near us, and a third one hit between us and the main road and we took off to seek cover."

 

Troop base

 

The airport serves as a base for Ethiopian troops who helped the interim Somali government overthrow Islamic courts fighters late last month.

 

The UN delegation, from the UN refugee agency and the office for the co-ordination of humanitarian affairs, was taken to the UN compound in Mogadishu where they were meeting with Somali officials as planned.

 

Witnesses said Somali police forces and Ethiopian troops sealed off the airport and surrounding neighbourhoods after the attack and then assaulted civilians.

 

A cafe owner at the airport said he had been shot by police.

 

He said: "Ethiopian troops and Somali police came into my restaurant and beat us very badly. I sustained a small gunshot wound, but I am getting treatment in the hospital."

 

A police official, who requested anonymity, said "the beating was a case of mistaken identity".

 

Muhamoud Yassin, a taxi driver, said the situation remained tense: "People are not allowed to and from the facility. There is a heavy security presence."

 

The attack came a day after a first batch of Ethiopian troops began pulling out of Mogadishu, even though a proposed 7,600-strong African Union (AU) peacekeeping force has yet to be deployed.

 

Nigeria confirmed on Wednesday that it will send soldiers to join the peacekeeping force but many still doubt that the AU will be able to deploy such a large force and fear a power vacuum if peacekeepers do not arrive before Ethiopian troops leave.

 

US attack

 

In a separate development, The Washington Post, citing unnamed US officials, said that a US AC-130 gunship had fired at suspected al-Qaeda operatives in southern Somalia on Monday.

 

If confirmed, it would be the second US attack this month in southern Somalia using an AC-130, a fixed-wing aircraft with rapid-firing guns.

 

On January 8 the US attacked a site where senior al-Qaeda operatives were believed to be hiding.

 

Neither Hussein Mohamed Aidid, the Somali deputy prime minister, or Abdirahman Dinari, a government spokesman, could confirm the attack.

 

Aidid said:

"This is just speculation and we have not received any information."

Source

 

 

[Wisdom_Seeker]

We have a puppet government who doesn’t even know that parts of the country is being bombed.

 

These TFGoons are more destructive and precarious to our country than any other creature or thing. They have no control. They keep proving that fact whenever one of them opens his mouth to spit more mendacity.

[RedSea]

^They are thugs, that is what uneducated,voilent, bunch of budhcad would do.We all expected this to happen.

[Miskiin-Macruuf-Aqiyaar]

Aidid said: "This is just speculation and we have not received any information."

Of course. Yaala tashanaayo qashin. Their master, Sanaawi, knows what happens in Jubbooyinka than themselves since beforehand loogu sheego asaga by his own American master, maadaama uu maanta dalka dhan uu occupier ku yahay, asagaa lala tashtaa.

 

Even Xamiid Qarsaay, as powerless and lame duck as he is, is informed when masaakiinta reer Afgaan lagu laayo bambooyinkaas Galbeedka u adeegsadaan dadkaas maatida ah.

 

Then again Xamiid Qarsaay at least controls Kabul.

[Wisdom_Seeker]

Speak of Police brutality, if Somali police are going to be this reckless then we are going to have profound difficulties. You don’t beat-up an innocent person and then say it was a case of mistaken “identity". A person is innocent until proven guilty in a democratic country and you can’t beat-up a person who is defenseless and is unarmed. These people know how to shout democracy but don’t even know the basics of Democracy.

 

These police officers and Ethiopian soldiers need to be held accountable.....Ooh who am I kidding that will never happen.