Militants Drag Corpses in Somali Streets

[Liibaan]

Militants Drag Corpses in Somali Streets

 

Wednesday March 21, 2007 2:46 PM

 

 

By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN

 

Associated Press Writer

 

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Masked men believed to be Islamic militants dragged the corpses of two soldiers through the streets of the Somali capital and set their bodies on fire Wednesday during fierce battles with government forces trying to consolidate their control of Mogadishu.

 

Medical officials at Mogadishu's three hospitals said they had recorded at least seven dead and 36 wounded by early afternoon in some of the heaviest fighting in Mogadishu since the Islamic forces were driven out in December. Dahir Mohamed Mohamud Dhere of Medina Hospital said doctors there were treating 36 wounded government soldiers.

 

An Associated Press photographer saw insurgents drag the bodies of one Ethiopian soldier and one Somali government soldier through southern Mogadishu and set them on fire.

 

The men dragging the corpses wore blue and white scarves to mask their faces, something characteristic of Mogadishu's insurgents, who normally carry out their attacks with their faces masked.

 

Women pounded one of the burning bodies with stones as a handful of young men watched.

 

A similar scene grabbed the world's attention after Somali militiamen shot down a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter in 1993 during a failed American mission to capture a warlord. The images of American troops being dragged through the streets led to the eventual withdrawal of U.N. forces and years of anarchy in Somalia.

 

Dahir Mohamed Mohamud Dhere of Medina Hospital said that his institution was treating 36 wounded government soldiers.

 

Ahmed Mohamed Botaan, a clan elder whose neighborhood was turned into a battleground, told the AP by phone that he counted 15 bodies, seven of government troops.

 

Ethiopia sent soldiers into Somalia in December to help defeat an Islamic movement that threatened to destroy the internationally recognized government. The defeated Islamic forces started an insurgency to overthrow the government and drive out the Ethiopian troops, firing mortars and rocket-propelled grenades at the Somali forces and their Ethiopian allies almost daily.

 

Somali leaders have said in recent weeks that they were preparing a major offensive to stop the growing insurgency.

 

Somali and Ethiopian forces supported by tanks and armored vehicles entered an insurgent stronghold in southern Mogadishu before dawn and were met by hundreds of masked insurgents.

 

``Ethiopian tanks rolled out of the former Defense Ministry and moved into the nearby Shirkole area, which is seen as the stronghold of the insurgent groups, and they met with stiff resistance,'' said Ali Haji Jama, a resident of the southern neighborhood at the center of the fighting.

 

Other witnesses said minibuses filled with insurgents were racing through the city to reach Shirkole and defend against the Ethiopian advance. The same minibuses were used to carry away casualties, said Muqtar Abdulahi Dahir, a Mogadishu businessman who witnessed the fighting.

 

Somalia's government began the operation about midnight Tuesday at the former Defense Ministry headquarters and plans to move forces into other parts of the capital, said Mohamed Ali Nur, Somalia's ambassador in neighboring Kenya.

 

Nur said that the government push was aimed at stopping insurgents attacking government buildings. He denied that any Ethiopian troops were involved in the operation.

 

A group of insurgents, Popular Resistance Movement in the Land of the Two Migrations, claimed they were the target of the government offensive, which has also been reported in northern parts of the capital.

 

The group said in a statement posted on the Web site of Somalia's routed Islamic movement that it had repulsed the attacks and an unspecified number of government soldiers had surrendered.

 

The group said that it expected ``decisive'' fighting in coming days.

 

Security officials arrested two journalists working for local Shabelle Radio when they went to Mogadishu's main airport to attend a news conference with Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi, said Mohamed Amin, the station's editor.

 

Amin told the AP that he did not know where they were taken or why, adding that other journalists who went to the venue were threatened. Some fled when their two colleagues were arrested, he said.

 

Salah Abdikadir, a senior intelligence officer, confirmed that security officials had picked up the journalists but declined to give any details.

 

The African Union has deployed a small peacekeeping force to defend the current government.

[Liibaan]

Crowds in Somalia Mutilate Bodies of Soldiers

By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN

KIWAYU, Kenya, March 21 — The chaos in Somalia took an ugly turn on Wednesday when full-scale fighting broke out in Mogadishu and furious crowds mutilated the bodies of government soldiers, chanting, “We will burn you alive!”

 

The scene was reminiscent of 1993, when Somalis turned on American peacekeepers and dragged their bodies through the streets. Those images and the loss of 18 American soldiers in a single battle, the infamous “Black Hawk Down” episode, led to a swift American withdrawal.

 

This time the targets were Ethiopian troops and the soldiers of Somalia’s transitional government, both reviled by many people in Mogadishu, Somalia’s chaotic capital. Residents are now beginning to fear that this transitional government is headed in the same direction as the 13 transitional governments that came before it — into a vortex of clan violence and anarchy that has made Somalia an icon of a failed state.

 

The recent injection of a small force of African Union peacekeepers does not seem to have made a difference.

 

At dawn on Wednesday, Ethiopian and government soldiers stormed into a neighborhood in southern Mogadishu to disarm gunmen there. Instead, witnesses said, they were greeted by dozens of masked insurgents who blasted them with rocket-propelled grenades.

 

More than 15 people were killed, including several government soldiers and possibly two Ethiopians.

 

The neighborhood is home to several clans that feel alienated by the transitional government and was a stronghold of the Islamist movement that took over the city and much of south-central Somalia last year, before being defeated by Ethiopian and government soldiers in December.

 

Witnesses to Wednesday’s melee said a frenzied crowd seized the bodies, dragged them through the streets and set them on fire. Some residents said that when gasoline was poured over the bodies and matches struck, a few of the soldiers were still alive.

 

“It was disgusting,” said Nura Maalin Mohammed, a shopkeeper who works near where the soldiers were burned. “If these people are trying to say this was done in the name of Islam, it’s a fallacy. May God have mercy on them.”

 

Somalia was not supposed to be like this anymore. Over the past several months, Ethiopia, the United States, the United Nations and the African Union have invested more hope and resources in the country than at any time since the failed peacekeeping mission of the early 1990s.

 

It was only with Ethiopia’s military might that Somalia’s transitional government was able to overthrow the Islamist movement. The United States provided intelligence to the Ethiopians and sent in a small contingent of Special Forces ground troops after American officials labeled the Islamists a terrorist threat.

 

Since then, though, Mogadishu seems as unsafe as ever.

 

The Islamists had managed during their short reign to stop the clan bloodletting and provide a modicum of security.

 

But the transitional government has had a difficult time replicating this. In the past month, Somali hospital officials say, more than 100 civilians have been killed across the country in battles between insurgents and government forces. Assassinations are on the rise. In the capital, thousands of residents who have lived through years of mayhem are choosing to pack up their things and leave now.

 

“We can’t live like this,” said Rahmo Dahir, a mother of four. “My children will be in shock.”

 

Analysts say the problem is that despite all the talk of the transitional government being a multi-clan enterprise, it is dominated by the ***** clan, which hails from northeast Somalia, and it has marginalized many branches of the ****** clan, which traditionally controls Mogadishu.

 

Elders on all sides agree that until there is genuine reconciliation, there will be no peace.

 

“We don’t want to get consumed by these rivalries,” said Ahmed Hussein Sheikh, an elder of the Galgel clan. “We want a government.”

 

The transitional government plans to hold a reconciliation conference in April and has said it wants to disarm Mogadishu before then. That was one reason why 1,500 Ugandan troops, working under African Union auspices, were airlifted into Somalia earlier this month. So far, though, the Ugandans have steered clear of the street fighting and have been reluctant to get between Somalia’s heavily armed clans.

 

On Tuesday, African Union officials pleaded with member states to contribute more troops because only a handful of nations — mostly American allies, like Ghana and Nigeria — have answered the call.

 

 

Yuusuf Maxamuud and Mohammed Ibrahim contributed reporting from Mogadishu, Somalia.

[Liibaan]

Somali Rebels Drag Corpses Through Streets

 

Militants Set Bodies Of Soldiers On Fire During Fierce Fighting In Mogadishu

 

MOGADISHU, Somalia, March 21, 2007

(AP) Islamic insurgents dragged soldiers' corpses through the streets of this bloodstained capital Wednesday and set the bodies on fire, drawing crowds who threw rocks and kicked the smoldering remains during a surge of violence that killed at least 16 people and wounded dozens.

 

Wednesday marked some of the heaviest fighting in Mogadishu since a radical militia known as the Council of Islamic Courts was driven from the capital in December after six months in power. But the group has promised to launch an Iraq-style guerrilla war, and mortar attacks pound the capital nearly every day.

 

An Associated Press photographer saw six corpses — all either Somali soldiers or their Ethiopian allies — burned and mutilated while masked men shouted "God is great!" Women wearing head scarves and flowing dresses pounded one of the corpses with rocks as a handful of young men looked on, cheering.

 

"They were shouting, 'God is great' and 'We don't want infidels,"' Abdi Jimale, a resident of Mogadishu, told the AP.

 

A similar scene grabbed the world's attention after Somali militiamen shot down a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter in 1993 during a failed mission to capture a warlord. The images of American troops being dragged through the streets led to the eventual withdrawal of U.N. forces and years of anarchy in Somalia.

 

Abdinasir Hussein, who said he dragged one soldier's corpse from the back of his motorbike, told the AP he wanted to show that Somalis will defeat the "invaders," referring to the Ethiopian troops.

 

"I'm happy to drag an Ethiopian soldier on the Mogadishu streets," Hussein said.

 

Ahmed Mohamed Botaan, a clan elder whose neighborhood was turned into a battleground Wednesday, said he counted 16 bodies, seven of which were government troops. Mogadishu's three hospitals reported at least seven dead and 36 wounded.

 

The fighting began before dawn Wednesday when Somali and Ethiopian soldiers entered an insurgent stronghold in southern Mogadishu in an attempt to consolidate their power over Mogadishu. But hundreds of masked men were waiting for them, prompting an hours-long gunfight.

 

An insurgent group linked to the Islamic courts, called the Popular Resistance Movement in the Land of the Two Migrations, claimed they were the target of the government offensive but that they had repulsed the attack.

 

"They were unable to bear the pain of bullets coming from all four directions," said a statement from the group posted on the Islamic courts' Web site.

 

A government official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the ongoing operation, said Wednesday's offensive was focused on parts of the capital controlled by the Habr Gedir clan, which was a major supporter of the more radical elements of the Islamic courts and remains opposed to the government.

 

"The next week will be very hot in Mogadishu," the official said.

 

The operation was meant to start Sunday, but was postponed so President Abdullahi Yusuf could make a final attempt to reach an agreement with Habr Gedir elders. Instead, militant clansmen used the time to prepare for the siege.

 

Yusuf's ***** clan and the Habr Gedir are traditional enemies. Habr Gedir elders have accused Yusuf of favoring his fellow ***** clansmen and recruiting only ***** into the new Somali army, transforming the conflict a complex mixture of clan, political and religious disputes.

 

The U.S. Ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger, who also represents American interests in Somalia, condemned Wednesday's violence but said the U.S. government believes things are generally improving in Somalia. The United States had accused the Islamic courts of having ties to al Qaeda terrorists.

 

"On balance we do feel that the situation in Somalia is moving forward in a generally positive way," Ranneberger told reporters in Nairobi, Kenya.

 

Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991. The current administration has failed to assert control throughout the country, and the African Union has deployed a small peacekeeping force to defend it. But daily violence has continued in the capital, with civilians caught in the crossfire taking the brunt of the violence.

 

"The government should learn from today's defeat. Its soldiers were dragged through the streets," said Zainab Abdi, a mother of two children. She urged the government to reach out to the Islamic leaders, who are in hiding.

 

"Otherwise, civilians will keep dying," she said. "Who will the government rule if their people are killed every day?"

 

 

[Sharif_seylaci]

waa askartii darawiishtii laga keenay puntland sxb dadkaadii baaluugu madhiye mogadisho