Shabelle Media Network (Mogadishu)
Abdinasir Mohamed Guled
28 June 2008
Heavily armed Islamic fighters have attacked convoy vehicles escorting the deputy police commander of Baidoa town (the seat of the government on his way to the town from Mogadishu residents said.
At the attack occasion the commander with two armed vehicles full of soldiers was passing in Belidowgle area of lower Shabelle region where sudden fighting started.
In the fighting the two sides have used different kinds of weapons.
The commander whose name neither is Mohamed Nor has escaped from that attack
Witnesses said that five government soldiers were seriously injured in the attack
Some Residents said that the Islamists targeted government troops were transitory between Belidogle and Yaqbaraweyne, a small town west of the capital.
"The Islamists opened fires on government troop's vehicles were passing the same place the Ethiopians were ambushed some days ago," witness Hassan Damey told Shabelle by phone from Yaqbaraweyne.
The commander with the wounded soldiers and armed vehicles has continued his travel to Baidoa town.
It's yet unknown the causalities of the Islamic fighters attacked the soldiers.
The surge in violence raised further doubts over the prospects of the peace agreement that the government and ARS opposition group signed in Djibouti.
The Islamists behind near-daily ambushes and roadside bombs are the remnants of an Islamist movement that was ousted by the government and its Ethiopian allies at the start of last year.
The leaders of that group, and other critics of President Abdullahi Yusuf, have since moved to Ethiopia's arch-foe Eritrea and formed the Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia.
They repeatedly refused to meet government officials until Ethiopian troops left Somalia. But last month they dropped that demand and agreed to send delegates to Djibouti.
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