From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Fri Oct 23 2009 - 16:24:11 EDT
Somalia's Shabaab rebels threaten Uganda, Burundi
Fri Oct 23, 2009 12:05pm GMT
* Insurgents vow to avenge dead civilians
* At least 30 people killed by rockets on Thursday
* African Union peacekeepers deny responsibility
(Updates with President Museveni, paragraph 12)
By Abdi Guled and Ibrahim Mohamed
MOGADISHU, Oct 23 (Reuters) - Somalia's hardline al Shabaab insurgents said
they would strike the capitals of Burundi and Uganda in revenge for rocket
attacks by peacekeepers from those countries that killed at least 30 people
in Mogadishu.
"We shall make their people cry," Sheikh Ali Mohamed Hussein, al Shabaab's
self-styled governor of Banadir region, which includes Mogadishu, told
reporters late on Thursday.
"We shall attack Bujumbura and Kampala ... We will move our fighting to
those two cities and we shall destroy them."
Burundi and Uganda both have about 2,500 peacekeepers in the Somali capital
for the African Union's AMISOM force.
Reuters witnesses said they fired at least 35 rockets into the capital's
Bakara market area on Thursday after al Shabaab gunmen there launched mortar
shells at President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's plane as he left the airport for a
summit in Uganda.
The United States accuses the rebel group, which wants to topple Ahmed's
fragile U.N.-backed administration and impose its own strict version of
Islamic law across the country, of being al Qaeda's proxy in the failed Horn
of Africa state.
AMISOM's spokesman in Mogadishu, Major Barigye Ba-hoku, denied on Friday
that the AU soldiers had fired any artillery and blamed Thursday's civilian
deaths on rebel bombs.
"We did not shell any place ... We are investigating and the Somali
government is investigating too," Ba-hoku told Reuters.
"Al Shabaab wants to drag us into their war ... they shell us and then they
also shell Bakara, then they tell people there it was AMISOM who killed
civilians. We know their tactics."
Fighting in Somalia has killed 19,000 civilians since the start of 2007 and
driven another 1.5 million from their homes, triggering one of the world's
worst humanitarian emergencies.
Western security agencies say Somalia has become a haven for militants,
including foreign jihadists, who are using it to plot attacks across the
region and beyond.
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni warned al Shabaab not to try anything.
"These terrorists ... if they attempt to attack us, they will pay very
heavily," he told reporters in Kampala.
CIVILIAN DEATHS "DISASTROUS"
Speaking to Reuters in neighbouring Kenya, Somali Prime Minister Omar
Abdirashid Sharmarke denounced the insurgents.
"They are firing from Bakara and even mosques. They are using people there
as human shields ... We regret what happened. It is never our intention to
hurt our own people," he said.
Thursday's clashes were some of the heaviest to rock Mogadishu for weeks,
and they underlined the difficulties facing the 5,000-strong AU mission.
While winning some hearts and minds by giving residents access to clean
water and free medical treatment, AMISOM has been unable to do much more
than secure the city's airport, sea port, presidential palace and a few
roads in between.
Its soldiers come under near-daily attacks from roadside bombs and rebel
artillery, and last month al Shabaab hit their main headquarters with a twin
suicide car bombing that killed 17 peacekeepers, including the Burundian
deputy force commander.
"We do not take their threats lightly," Ba-hoku said. "Any attempt to attack
Burundi or Uganda will be met with decisive action and will be defeated."
Several African nations had committed to send troops to reinforce AMISOM but
have so far failed to do so, some saying in private that they are put off by
the incessant violence.
Despite that, Mogadishu-based political analyst Abdikarim Omar said AMISOM
was still better organised and armed than the rebels, and it should begin a
drive to clear them from the city.
"They should launch a major offensive ... This endless shelling of
commercial and residential neighbourhoods, the killing dozens of innocent
people, is more disastrous than a two- or three-week operation." he told
Reuters. (Additional reporting by Abdi Sheikh in Mogadishu, Abdiaziz Hassan
in Nairobi and Frank Nyakairu in Kampala; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing
by Giles Elgood)
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