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Somalia: 'Bakara Traders Organized Attack On Troops' - Mogadishu Mayor
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Garowe Online (Garowe)
21 March 2008
Posted to the web 24 March 2008
The mayor of Somalia's chaotic capital has blamed merchants for a bloody battle that killed at least 3 government soldiers yesterday.
Mohamed "Dheere" Omar, the mayor of Mogadishu who also holds the post of Banadir governor, told reporters in the capital Friday that business groups in the city's main Bakara market "organized" the ambush on government soldiers manning checkpoints.
"The al-Shabaab group and the so-called Bakara traders are behind yesterday's attack on government forces," Mayor Mohamed Dheere said, adding: "The anti-government groups want to remain inside Bakara."
Somali government officials have long maintained that Bakara market, the country's largest, is a major base of operations for al-Shabaab fighters.
Mohamed Dheere, a former warlord, claimed that government security forces overpowered the attackers and chased them away.
He categorically denied eyewitness reports of insurgents briefly seizing control of two key checkpoints at Bakara, before withdrawing peacefully later. [ Full story]
Mogadishu's mayor said al-Shabaab is a "terrorist organization," reiterating an announcement by the U.S. government this week adding the Somali Islamist guerrillas to its list of terrorist organizations.
Meanwhile, a police commander died today after a bomb exploded at a Mogadishu police station, killing the commander instantly and wounding four others, including two Ethiopian soldiers.
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In a separate incident, a convoy of Ethiopian army trucks driving south of Mogadishu hit a landmine, witnesses said. No one was reported hurt, but one of the army vehicles was slightly damaged.
A young girl was wounded when Ethiopian soldiers opened gunfire immediately after the explosion, according to neighbors.
Mogadishu's insurgency has killed thousands of people since early 2007 as Islamist-led rebels wage a bloody guerrilla war to oust the interim government and its Ethiopian military backers.
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