Garowe Online (Garowe)
23 July 2008
Somali troops fresh from military training in neighboring Ethiopia traveled to the capital Mogadishu Wednesday, but not before engaging in a deadly battle with local government security forces, reports said.
Ali "Ganey" Aden, a police commander in Lower Shabelle region, told the media that the Somali government soldiers shot and killed two officers employed by the local administration yesterday.
Residents in Afgoye town, in Lower Shabelle, told Garowe Online that the government troops raided a local market and engaged security forces there in a skirmish, killing two of them.
But Dahir Mohamed Abdi, a military official traveling with the troops, told a radio station in Mogadishu that the dead victims "wore military uniform" but were working with "anti-government groups."
He accused Mr. Ganey and other Lower Shabelle officials of "aiding the insurgency."
Earlier this month, Defense Minister Muhiyadin Haji Mohamed told parliament that 2,000 Somali troops trained by the Ethiopian army have entered the country and will be deployed in Mogadishu and other main towns to help improve security.
Observers say the Ethiopian-backed interim government faces many challenges, including defeating an Islamist-led insurgency and establishing working harmony among government organs.
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