From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Sun Jun 07 2009 - 06:19:30 EDT
Somali battle kills 123, rebels deny leader Aweys dead
Sun Jun 7, 2009 8:14am GMT
By Abdi Sheikh
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Battles between rival Islamist groups in central
Somalia have killed 123 people, a rights group said on Saturday, and a
pro-government militia said militant rebel leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys
had died in the fighting.
Aweys' militia denied that as propaganda.
Witnesses said scores of bodies lay in the streets of Wabho town after
fighters from the hardline al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam groups battled
moderate Islamist group Ahla Sunna Waljamaca for control. Most of the deaths
were on Friday.
The local Elman Peace and Human Rights Organisation said it had confirmed
123 fighters killed in one of the worst flare-ups of the year in the
conflict-riven Horn of Africa nation.
An Islamist insurgency that broke out in early 2007 -- the latest in 19
years of conflict in Somalia -- has killed around 18,000 civilians and
thousands more fighters.
It has also drawn foreign jihadists into Somalia, enabled piracy to flourish
offshore, and unsettled the whole region, putting East African neighbours on
high security alert.
In Mogadishu, al Shabaab have been battling the security forces of President
Sheikh Sharif Ahmed. In the central region, pro- and anti-government
Islamist militia have been fighting all year, with towns changing hands
regularly.
DEAD OR ALIVE?
Among the dead in Wabho, according to pro-government Alha Sunna, was Hizbul
Islam leader Aweys, a 62-year-old cleric and hardliner whom the United
States and United Nations have accused of links to al Qaeda. The group said
he died of gunshot wounds.
"Hassan Dahir died in El Bur," Alha Sunna spokesman Sheikh Abdullahi Sheikh
Abu Yusuf told Reuters, referring to a nearby town with a hospital.
"We seriously injured him yesterday. This is good news."
If confirmed, Aweys' death would be a major blow to the rebels and a boost
for Ahmed's government, which had tried unsuccessfully to broker peace talks
with the cleric.
But Hizbul Islam spokesman Sheikh Musa Arale denied the report of Aweys'
death.
"Sheikh Hassan is alive and unharmed," he told Reuters. "That is the
propaganda of our enemies whose commanders and leaders we killed yesterday."
Some residents of Wabho and a Hizbul Islam fighter said Aweys was injured
and taken to hospital in El Bur.
"I understand Sheikh Hassan was hit by bullets in the back and thighs," the
fighter, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. "He may be serious but I
have not heard of his death."
Neither side controlled Wabho on Saturday, locals said, but the battles had
halted for them to collect and bury corpses.
The violence is swelling Somalia's more than 1 million internal refugee
population. Aid agencies say 3 million people need urgent food aid in one of
the world's worst -- and most neglected -- humanitarian crises.
C Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
FACTBOX: Facts about Somali opposition leader Aweys
Sat Jun 6, 2009 6:57pm EDT
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(Reuters) - Battles between rival Islamist groups in central Somalia have
killed 123 people, a rights group said on Saturday, and a pro-government
militia said militant rebel leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys had died in the
fighting.
Aweys' militia denied that as propaganda.
Aweys is an influential figure among the insurgents in Somalia, where he has
headed numerous Islamist groups since the 1990s. Here are key facts about
Aweys:
* The 62-year-old bespectacled cleric was born on the outskirts of
Dhusamareb town in the Galguduud region of central Somalia. He is part of
the Ayr wing of the Habr Gedir, a major sub-clan of the Hawiye.
* Aweys went to secondary school in Mogadishu. In 1972, he joined dictator
Mohamed Siad Barre's army and graduated from General Daud military academy.
Aweys rose to the rank of colonel and was decorated with a silver medal for
bravery in a war against Ethiopia in 1977.
* In the 1990s, Aweys was vice chairman and military commander for
al-Ittihad al-Islami, which at the time was Somalia's largest militant
Islamist group. He was soundly defeated in battles against Ethiopia and
Somali warlords backed by Addis Ababa.
* Aweys is among individuals or entities the United States "linked to
terrorism" shortly after the September 11 attacks. The United Nations has
him on a list of people "belonging to or associated with" al Qaeda.
Washington has ruled out contact with Aweys, who denies al Qaeda links.
* President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, who led the Islamic Courts Union with Aweys
before Ethiopian troops expelled them from Mogadishu in late 2006, wants him
taken off those lists. Aweys founded the al Shabaab, a militant Islamist
group and the armed wing of the sharia courts movement.
* Aweys is a close friend of Sheikh Hassan Abdullah Hersi al-Turki, who,
intelligence sources say, leads the Somali wing of the al-Takfir wal-Hijra
-- an international Islamist group linked to extremism. Aweys also mentored
the former head of the al Shabaab, Aden Hashi Ayro, who was killed in a U.S.
air strike in May 2008 and was also accused of al Qaeda links.
* Following Ethiopia's invasion of Somalia, Aweys went underground and kept
a low profile until publicly re-surfacing in Eritrea at a Somali opposition
conference in September 2007. Initially, he was not part of the leadership
of the Asmara-based Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS), but
took over after the former head, Ahmed, broke away and became the interim
government's president. Aweys returned to Somalia in April on his first
known trip back to the Horn of Africa nation.
SOURCES: Aweys, Reuters, experts.
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C Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
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