Somali Police Intercept Car Filled with Explosives

[General Duke]

Somali Police Intercept Car Filled with Explosives

 

 

By Alisha Ryu

Mogadishu

12 June 2007

 

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Police in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, have intercepted a car loaded with explosives they say was going to be used against the interim government. VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu in Mogadishu was given an exclusive, first-hand look and files this report.

 

Police found the car Monday at an intersection in the southern Hodan District of the capital.

 

Hodan District Chairman Abdi Mohamud Warsame tells VOA that two men were standing next to the vehicle, but fled when the police arrived.

 

Warsame says the police received a tip about a suspicious-looking car from people in the neighborhood, so they went to investigate. He says he and police officials are happy, because they believe they have prevented what could have been a terrible tragedy.

 

In the trunk of the white Toyota Camry, police discovered several sacks of munitions, including 40 80-millimeter mortars, a rocket, a hand grenade, and several other items the police could not identify.

 

The munitions were mostly old and many were rusted. No detonator cords or detonators were found in the car, suggesting that the munitions were not at the stage of being assembled into a bomb.

 

A Somali Islamist youth group claimed responsibility for last month's suicide car bombing, which killed five people at the Mogadishu residence of the interim Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, and several recent guerrilla attacks on government officials, and Ethiopian and African Union troops.

 

Somalia's Ethiopian-backed interim government, which took power away from the Islamists in Mogadishu six months ago, insists that only extremists with links to the al-Qaida terror group are using car and roadside bombs. The government says such violence is against the Somali culture.

 

But the police acknowledge that without any suspects in the case, it is impossible to say whether the car belongs to Islamist insurgents or other groups opposed to the government and the Ethiopian troops who protect it.

 

What is clear is that Iraq-style bombings have unnerved the government, which has installed security measures now routine in capitals like Baghdad and Kabul.

 

Roads leading to government offices and residences are dotted with checkpoints manned by Somali and Ethiopian soldiers. Vehicles and visitors are hand-searched before entering government and public compounds. On some streets, barricades have been erected to keep out all vehicle traffic.

 

The head of the political and reconciliation section in the mayor's office is Abdullahi Hassan Ganey. He tells VOA that Mogadishu's mayor, Mohamed Dheere, has instituted a neighborhood-watch system throughout Mogadishu's 16 districts.

 

Ganey says village chiefs are working together and sharing information about anything or anyone in their neighborhoods who is suspicious. He says the system is working well in deterring potential terrorist attacks.

 

Meanwhile, two Ethiopian rebel groups fighting for self-determination have vehemently denied joining Somali Islamists and former Somali parliamentarians in an Eritrean-based coalition, opposed to Ethiopia and the interim government here.

 

The rebel groups, ****** National Liberation Front and the Oromo Liberation Front, say they have no desire to interfere in Somalia's 16-year-old civil war and they said they would never be a part of any coalition with political groups in Somalia.

 

Source: VOA, June 12, 2007

[General Duke]

Ciidamada booliska oo qabtey gaari laga soo buuxiyay walxaha qarxa

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Mogadishu 11, June.07 ( Sh.M.Network) Maamulka degmada Hodon ee magaalada Muqdisho ayaa maanta shaaca ka qaaday in ay gacanta ku soo dhigeen hub iyo walxaha qarxa ka dib markii baaritaano ay ka sameeyeen qeybo ka mid ah degmada Hodon ee magaalada Muqdisho.

 

Guddoomiyaha degmada Hodon Cabdi Muxumad Dhabaneey oo shir Jaraa'id ku qabtey saldhigga Booliska degmadaasi ayaa waxa uu sheegay in ciidamada booliska ay gacanta ku dhigeen gaari nuuca raaxada ah oo laga soo buuxiyay walxaha qarxa, kaasi oo sida la sheegay la damacsanaa in lagu waxyeeleeyo xarumaha dowladda KMG ah ee Somalia.

 

Dhabaneey ayaa waxa uu halkaasi saxaafadda ugu soo bandhigay ilaa 40 xabadood oo ah kuwa ka dhaca hoobiyaha iyo walxihii loo diyaariyay in lagu qarxiyo, isagoo sheegay in ciidamada Booliska howl-gal ay sameeyeen ay ku soo qabteen hubkaan agagaarka Black sea ee degmada Hodon.

 

Guddoomiyaha degmada Hodon waxa uu intaasi ku daray in ay baxsadeen raggii watay gaarigaan, oo uu sheegay in ay isku dhex dareen dad badan oo marayay halkaasi.

 

Waxa uu sheegay in gaarigaan la qabtay ee laga soo buuxiyay walxaha qarxa la doonayay in lagu weeraro meel ka mid ah fariisimaha dowladda, waana uu fashilmay sida uu sheegay Guddoomiyaha.

 

Arimahaan ayaa waxa ay ku soo beegmeen xilli maanta aas qaran magaalada Muqdisho loogu sameeyay Allaha u naxariistee Madaxweynihii ugu horreeyay ee Somalia, Marxuum Aadan Cabdulle Cismaan, iyadoo aaskiisa ay ka qeybgaleen Madaxda ugu sareysa dowladda KMG ah ee Somalia.

 

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