Mortars, killings shake Mogadishu as violence unabated
Source: Reuters
(Adds AU, Crisis Group) By Guled Mohamed MOGADISHU, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Mortars hit a Mogadishu residential area and two men were shot dead overnight in the latest violence in a city the Somali government is struggling to pacify after the ouster of hardline Islamists. In neighbouring Kenya -- where some defeated Islamist fighters have fled -- five young men of Somali origin carrying U.S., French, Tunisian and Syrian passports were arrested at the border, local newspapers reported. In what looked like a targeted killing in the lawless Somali capital, a man was blindfolded and shot dead late on Thursday in Mogadishu's Tarbuunka Square, witnesses said. "Three men came out of a vehicle holding a blindfolded man. They shot him then drove away," said a resident who saw the assassination. The other man was shot in Bakara market, residents said. Details of both incidents were murky. But they added to tensions in a city hit by a string of attacks in recent days aimed at the Somali government and its Ethiopian military allies who helped them topple the Islamists in a two-week offensive over Christmas and New Year. Two mortars bombs fired by unknown assailants hit the northern Madina neighbourhood overnight. "One of the mortars hit a house totally destroying a room. ... The family members were lucky to survive. The second mortar fell on a road seriously injuring a pedestrian," said a resident, who gave his name as Abdirahman. Many suspect hardcore remnants of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) are behind such attacks, but there are many enemies of the government including warlord and clan militias plus criminals. Some residents and analysts fear a slide back to the anarchy Somalia has suffered for the last 16 years. AFRICAN MISSION To prevent that, the African Union (AU) wants to send in nearly 8,000 peacekeepers. Its foreign ministers were discussing that on Friday at AU headquarters in Ethiopia, which wants its troops out but has promised not leave a security vacuum. Uganda, Malawi and Nigeria have pledged troops, while South Africa and Rwanda have ruled out deploying. Mozambique and others are considering contributing. It remains to be seen who will give all of the troops for the AU operation, which would be only its second since a shaky mission to Sudan's Darfur region. "We are confident that if we are able to meet the logistical and financial requirements, we can deploy the three initial battalions quickly ... in a matter of weeks," AU Peace and Security Commissioner Said Djinnit told reporters. The European Union has pledged to provide funding for the deployment, as has the United States. But EU aid Commissioner Louis Michel has insisted on an inclusive reconciliation and reinstatement of parliament Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan -- thrown out for perceived closeness to the Islamists -- before he will disburse the money. That has angered the government and its allies. "The Somali government should have the ownership of the peace process," Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin said in Addis Ababa. "No one has the right to bring petty personalities and try to impose them on the peace process." The International Crisis Group watchdog said the international community cannot dictate what the government must do, but should offer political, military and financial support based on the government's commitment to reconciliation. "Failure to grasp this opportunity would mean an all-too familiar story line for Somalia of factional fighting and fractured government," ICG's Horn of Africa project director David Mozersky said in a statement. The government has said it will consider bringing in former Islamists, including top leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, if they renounce violence and apologise to Somalis. Ahmed is in Kenyan custody, and a U.S. envoy has met him and urged him to play a role in reconciliation. The government of President Abdullahi Yusuf was set up in 2004 in a 14th attempt to restore central rule to Somalia since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre's ouster in 1991. But having just reached Mogadishu for the first time since then, it now faces a massive challenge to establish its authority and pacify one of the world's most anarchic nations. Kenyan newspapers said five men arrested at Kiunga on the Indian Ocean coast at the Somali border were caught carrying AK-47 rifles, and were now being interrogated by police. Neither Kenyan officials nor diplomats in Nairobi could confirm the Standard and Nation reports that the five included U.S., French, Tunisian and Syrian passport-holders. (Additional reporting by Sahal Abdulle in Mogadishu, Marie-Louise Gumuchian and Opheera McDoom in Addis Ababa, Wangui Kanina in Nairobi, Andrew Quinn in Johannesburg and Ingrid Melander in Brussels)
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