From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Thu Aug 13 2009 - 17:21:40 EDT
Somali officials trade blame over sheikh murders
Thu Aug 13, 2009 11:52am GMT
* Local administrations accuse each other
* Seven preachers were gunned down in mosque (Adds Pakistani comment)
By Abdi Sheikh and Abdi Guled
MOGADISHU, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Officials in lawless northern Somalia traded
accusations on Thursday a day after masked gunmen massacred seven Pakistani
preachers at a mosque.
The sheikhs were killed in Galkayo, a town on the southern edge of the
semi-autonomous northern Puntland region. Violence is increasing in the
area, which had been relatively more peaceful than the rest of the failed
Horn of Africa state.
Western security agencies say Somalia has become a haven for Islamist
militant plotting attacks in the region and beyond.
The president of Puntland, Abdirahman Mohamed Farole, accused officials in
Galmudug, which covers the southern part of the town, of ordering
Wednesday's shooting.
"The administration of southern Galkayo was behind the killing of the
Pakistani preachers," Farole told reporters. "They are causing chaos in our
region."
But a senior Galmudug official, Mohamed Warsame, denied it.
"Puntland is definitely behind the killings," Warsame said.
"When the Pakistanis landed in Puntland their passports were taken by the
authorities and they were settled in a mosque ... the Puntland president has
imposed a night curfew in the north of Galkayo. His forces must have killed
them."
The group of about 25 sheikhs had arrived in Puntland on Tuesday. Local
officials said they were mostly from Karachi.
It remained far from clear why they were murdered.
Some residents said they may have been suspected of al Qaeda links, while
others rejected that and said the clerics were from South Asia's apolitical
Tablighi Jamaat religious movement.
The Pakistani government said Somalian Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdullahi
Omar expressed condolences over the "tragic incident" in a telephone call to
Pakistani Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Malik Amad Khan.
"He assured ... that the government of Somalia was doing its utmost to
apprehend the culprits," the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said in a statement,
referring to the Somalian minister.
Somalia has been torn by civil war since 1991, and the government of
President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed controls only small pockets of the
bomb-shattered capital Mogadishu.
It is battling hardline Islamist rebels in southern and central regions,
including the al Shabaab group, which the United States accuses of being al
Qaeda's proxy in Somalia.
At least six people were killed in Mogadishu on Wednesday when two
supposedly pro-government factions exchanged artillery and anti-aircraft
fire across the city's strategic K4 junction.
Violence in Somalia has killed more than 18,000 people since the beginning
of 2007 and driven another 1 million from their homes. (Additional reporting
by Ibrahim Mohamed in Mogadishu and Zeeshan Haider in Islamabad; Writing by
Daniel Wallis; Editing by Alison Williams)
C Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
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