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Somalia: PM Returns Home as Fighting Kills 5
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Garowe Online (Garowe)
18 February 2008
Posted to the web 19 February 2008
Garowe
The Prime Minister of Somalia' s transitional federal government, Nur "Adde" Hassan Hussein, returned to the capital Mogadishu after a weeks-long trip to Ethiopia and parts of Europe.
Vital roads linking Adan Adde International Airport and the presidential palace Villa Somalia were closed to civilian and commercial traffic Monday morning with hundreds of Somali and Ethiopian soldiers standing guard.
The Prime Minister's delegation, which included his finance and foreign affairs ministers, were welcomed at the airport by Mogadishu municipal officials.
He did not speak with reporters upon landing and was quickly ushered towards the heavily-guarded Villa Somalia compound.
Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, who returned to Mogadishu Saturday, has since been targeted twice at his Villa Somalia residence with mortars fired by suspected insurgents.
Abdi Haji Gobdon, spokesman for the Prime Minister's office, described Prime Minister Nur Adde's trip to Addis Ababa, Brussels and Paris as "successful," adding that the Somali premier had a chance to meet and talk with various European Union officials.
Gobdon also aimed to dismiss circulating rumors when he stated that there is "no dispute" between the president and the prime minister.
He was responding to speculation in the Somali press which suggested that President Yusuf and Prime Minister Nur Adde had serious disagreements over the path to reconciliation.
The Prime Minister's tone regarding reconciliation has been one of openness and willingness to engage with the opposition, but President Yusuf has maintained his hardline position about not talking to members of the armed opposition and groups with alleged links to wanted terrorists.
Despite Prime Minister Nur Adde's calls for peace talks, violence in Mogadishu has shown no sign of slowing down.
At least two civilians were wounded during a 30-minute battle Sunday night in the capital between suspected insurgents and government troops.
A day earlier, a man dressed in Somali army fatigues shot and killed three civilians at a marketplace in Yaaqshiid district, witnesses told Garowe Online.
There was no motive given for the killing, but the shooting terrified storeowners and customers alike.
A heavy battle erupted in Mogadishu Monday afternoon near two major intersections leading into the notorious Bakara market, witnesses reported.
At least 5 combatants on both sides were killed and 9 civilians wounded in the fighting, according to witnesses and medical sources.
Sources said insurgents briefly seized control of the strategic Howlwadaag intersection and captured one army vehicle.
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Ethiopian troops were dispatched from their camp at Stadium Mogadishu and were reported to have reinforced government troops there.
Mogadishu has seen little respite from violence since January 2007 when Ethiopian-backed government forces ousted Islamist rulers from the capital.
The Islamists then began a bloody guerrilla war that has claimed the lives of more than 6,000 people and displaced half of Mogadishu's civilian population, according to UN and aid agency figures.
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