Somalia bans cars in Baidoa to avert attacks
Source: Reuters
(Updates with prime minister quotes) By Hassan Yare MOGADISHU, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Somalia's interim government on Tuesday banned cars from entering the town where it is based to try to stop more car bomb attacks there. A suicide bombing near Baidoa, about 250 km (155 miles) from the capital Mogadishu, killed nine people last week in an attack which came less than three months after suicide bombers narrowly missed killing President Abdullahi Yusuf. Meanwhile, Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi visited Addis Ababa and said his Ethiopian-backed government was capable of defending itself against what he termed a "terrorism" threat posed by rival Islamists. Somali Deputy Defence Minister Salad Ali Jelle initially blamed the Mogadishu-based Islamists for Friday's blast, but another minister said it was too early to blame anyone. The Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC), the nation's most powerful military force which has challenged the Western-backed interim administration's authority and effectively flanked it on three sides, has denied any involvement. "We have banned travellers using sedan cars to enter Baidoa in order to prevent further suicide attacks," District Commissioner Ahmed Maddey Issak told Reuters by telephone. "Travellers have been using 40 to 50 small sedan cars a day which is overwhelming our security officials," he said. Travellers would now have to use minivans and buses to go to Baidoa which would be subjected to searches at checkpoints. The Islamists have suggested their arch-foe Ethiopia had a hand in the blast to create a reason to attack them. Ethiopia denies any involvement. GOVERNMENT "NOT WEAK" Gedi, speaking to reporters in Addis Ababa after meeting Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, said his government was busy bolstering its security forces so it could eventually take over the capital Mogadishu from the Islamists. "The TFG (Transitional Federal Government) is not weak. We have trained our security forces and the military and we are ready to engage them," he said. Gedi said 3,000 foreign fighters from Pakistan, Afghanistan and also the Eritrean government, along with unspecified other fighters from Yemen, Sudan, Libya and Egypt and Ethiopian rebel groups were converging on Somalia. There was no independent verification of his estimates, although a report to the United Nations says roughly 2,000 Eritrean troops are there. Asmara denies that. Diplomats fear the standoff between the Islamists, who control Mogadishu and much of the south, and the government will spiral into all-out conflict, sucking in neighbouring countries. Talks between the two sides stalled last month and some fear the latest violence will derail further negotiations. A U.S.-backed U.N. Security Council resolution to authorise a peacekeeping force to prop up the government is also being discussed, which the Islamists say would be tantamount to a foreign invasion. Gedi said he was confident it would pass. "It is time for all countries in the world to be engaged in fighting terrorism before it expands," he said, echoing earlier comments in which he accused the SICC of being a regional front for al Qaeda. The SICC has denied any links to the group. (Additional reporting by Sahal Abdulle in Mogadishu and Tsegaye Tadesse in Addis Ababa)
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