From: Biniam Haile \(SWE\) (eritrea.lave@comhem.se)
Date: Mon May 18 2009 - 10:39:35 EDT
Somali insurgents seize another strategic town - Summary
Posted : Mon, 18 May 2009 13:11:54 GMT
Mogadishu - Somali Islamist insurgents seized control of another
strategic town north of Mogadishu on Monday as they continued to press
to end the short reign of President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed. Hizbul
Islam took control of Mahaday, around 20 kilometres north of Mogadishu,
without firing a single shot, witnesses said.
Insurgent group al-Shabaab, which has been fighting alongside Hizbul
Islam, took control of Jowhar, a key strategic town north of Mogadishu,
on Sunday.
Jowhar, which is 90 kilometres from Mogadishu and is the hometown of
Sheikh Sharif, links Mogadishu and central Somalia.
Heavy fighting has engulfed northern Mogadishu for the last ten days as
the militant groups push for a decisive victory in an insurgency that
kicked off in early 2007 after Ethiopian troops helped oust the Islamic
Courts Union (ICU) from power.
Over 150 people, many of them civilians, have been killed in the
fighting and hundreds more have been injured. Tens of thousands of
civilians have also fled Mogadishu.
The government received a boost on Sunday, however, when a leader of a
faction of Hizbul Islam defected to the government side with his
militia, bringing a boost to embattled government forces.
Sheikh Yusuf Mohamed Siyad Indha Adde - who was also the defence chief
for the opposition of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia said
Sunday he saw no reason to keep fighting.
"There is no reason to attack this government since it has decided to
implement Islamic law," Indha Adde told reporters in Mogadishu on Sunday
evening. "We decided to defend this government."
Indha Adde and the co-leader of the faction, Sheikh Hassan Mohamed Amey,
are believed to command around 200 fighters and a dozen armed vehicles.
Sheikh Sharif has implemented sharia law and has been attempting to
build bridges with the warring groups.
However, the militants say he is too close to the West.
Sheikh Sharif, who worked alongside many of the insurgents when the ICU
briefly ruled Somalia in 2006, came to power earlier this year as part
of a Western-backed peace process.
The UN has condemned the push and said it is a desperate measure aimed
at derailing Sheikh Sharif's attempts to build bridges and bring peace
to Somalia.
Eritrea has been accused of arming the insurgents, and the United
Nations and the United States have called on Eritrea to stop interfering
in Somali affairs.
The insurgency has claimed the lives of around 16,000 people, mainly
civilians, since early 2007, kicking off after Ethiopian troops invaded
to oust the ICU. Ethiopia pulled its forces out in January this year.
The resultant insecurity has helped feed an explosion of piracy in the
Gulf of Aden.
Somalia has been embroiled in chaos since the 1991 ouster of dictator
Mohamed Siad Barre, and is widely regarded as a failed state.
Copyright, respective author or news agency
http://www.earthtimes.org/articles/show/269314,somali-insurgents-seize-a
nother-strategic-town--summary.html
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