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Somalia: Peace Efforts Underway in Puntland After Attack On Security Minister
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Garowe Online (Garowe)
2 May 2008
Posted to the web 5 May 2008
Traditional elders in Somalia's northern Puntland region met privately on Friday in discussions aimed at easing tensions following a deadly gunfight yesterday that killed at least two militiamen.
Beeldaje Farah Beeldaje Abdullahi, an influential clan chief in Bari region, told Garowe Online that traditional elders decided to convene the meeting to halt further bloodshed in Bossaso, a key commercial port in northern Somalia.
The Beeldaje indicated that a committee was established to find out exactly how yesterday's battle erupted and the reasons behind the attack.
Abdullahi Said Samatar, the security minister of Puntland, was attacked by unidentified gunmen as he was driving towards a jail in Bossaso, with different reports emerging from the attack.
Two of the attackers were shot and killed in a fierce gun battle with the Security Minister's armed guards, independent sources and Mr. Samatar himself told Garowe Online.
"I do not know who they [attackers] were, but they intended to kill me," Security Minister Samatar told Garowe Online during a Friday interview.
Bossaso police sources said one of the attackers was a convict who had recently escaped from jail, but the rest of the six-man group remained unidentified.
Beeldaje Farah said the region's traditional elders had scheduled a meeting with the Puntland Cabinet and indicated that the regional authority had failed to take strong measures against rising criminality across the region.
CORRECTION
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A story entitled " Puntland security minister's bodyguard killed in Bossaso shootout," that appeared on Garowe Online on May 1, inaccurately reported that one of the bodyguards of Puntland Security Minister Abdullahi Said Samatar was killed during Thursday's battle in Bossaso. After a thorough inquiry, it has been clarified that no one in Mr. Samatar's camp was killed or wounded during the shootout.
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