From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Thu Oct 09 2008 - 11:56:41 EDT
Somalia's Al-Shabaab Says It May Revoke Airport Flight `Ban'
By Hamsa Omar
Oct. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Somalia's militant al-Shabaab Islamist movement, which last month vowed to shutdown the main airport in the capital, Mogadishu, said it may be prepared to revoke its decision if discussions are held on the issue.
``It may be possible to change our decision for the sake of our people,'' Sheikh Muktar Robow Ali Abu Mansoor, told reporters in a teleconference in the city today.
Al-Shabaab on Sept. 16 said all aircraft should stop using the airport because it's being used as an instrument of Ethiopia's military occupation of Somalia. Three days later, an African Union plane carrying peacekeepers defied the warning and landed at the airport.
Violence in Somalia's 18-year civil war has intensified since the government ejected Islamist fighters from southern and central areas in January 2007. The Islamic Courts Union controlled parts of southern Somalia in 2006 before being ousted by United Nations-backed transitional federal government soldiers and U.S.-supported Ethiopian troops.
At least 26 civilians have been killed in al-Shabaab mortar attacks on the airport in the past three weeks in the movement's bid to enforce its embargo on all flights.
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