Mogadishu falls to Somali government troops

 

By Guled Mohamed

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Triumphant Somali government forces marched into Mogadishu on Thursday after Islamist rivals abandoned the war-scarred city they held for six months before an Ethiopian-backed advance

 

The flight of the Islamists was a dramatic turn-around in the volatile Horn of Africa nation after they took Mogadishu in June and spread across the south imposing sharia rule.

 

Terrified of yet more violence in a city that has become a byword for chaos, some Mogadishu residents greeted the arriving government troops, while others hid.

 

"People are cheering as they wave flowers to the troops," said resident Abdikadar Abdulle, adding scores of government military vehicles had passed the Somalia National University west of the city center.

 

Parts of Mogadishu shook with the sound of gunfire and there were outbreaks of looting after leaders of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) fled its base early in the morning. Some fighters ditched their uniforms to avoid reprisals.

 

"We have been defeated. I have removed my uniform. Most of my comrades have also changed into civilian clothes," one former SICC fighter told Reuters. "Most of our leaders have fled."

 

The fall of Mogadishu came about 10 days after the Islamists sought to march

on the government base of Baidoa. That prompted Ethiopia to come openly into the war, proving the decisive factor in saving the government and pushing back the Islamists.

 

The SICC had brought a semblance of stability to Mogadishu by using the courts, after chasing U.S.-backed warlords from the city in June. Islamists and residents said order had collapsed with their departure.

 

"Mogadishu is now in chaos," Islamist leader Sheikh Sharif Ahmed told Al Jazeera television.

 

WARLORD FEAR

 

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi confirmed the advance to the outskirts of the capital and vowed to pursue the Islamist leaders. "We will not let Mogadishu burn," he added.

 

Government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said government forces had secured the main routes into Mogadishu . "We are taking control of the city and I will confirm when we have established complete control," he said.

 

He said the Islamists had fled to the southern port city of Kismayu and the administration controlled 95 percent of the Horn of Africa country.

The government declared a state of emergency "to control security and stability."

 

SICC leader Ahmed said his side's hasty withdrawal was a tactical move in a war against Ethiopian troops defending Somalia's weak, Western-backed government.

 

Many had predicted the Islamists would wage a guerrilla war if dealt a resounding blow in the first round of war.

 

Islamist defense lines were routed by a joint force of Ethiopian armor and government fighters.

 

 

Pro-government militias who once held sway in Mogadishu said they had captured several key buildings early on Thursday, including the former presidential palace.

 

Witnesses reported looting late on Wednesday and the sound of gunfire in a sign that one of the world's most dangerous cities may be sliding back to the rule of the gun.

 

"My worst fear is the capital will succumb to its old anarchy," said resident Muktar Abdi. "The government should come in now and take over -- this is the best chance they have before the city falls into the hands of the warlords again."

 

CHAOS, GUNFIRE AND LOOTING

 

Ahmed said the Islamists were united and determined to push out Ethiopian forces, but retreated to avoid more bloodshed.

 

By fleeing, the Islamists appeared to have averted the risk of becoming embroiled in the fierce street fighting that forced the U.S. military from Mogadishu more than a decade ago in a humiliating episode captured in the film "Black Hawk Down."

 

Dinari said President Abdullahi Yusuf remained in the government's south-central base Baidoa, but Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi was flying closer to the front.

 

The government has long viewed Mogadishu as too dangerous to move to but its return would be a massive step in achieving greater legitimacy as the 14th attempt to restore central rule since the 1991 ouster of a dictator.

 

The government maintained an amnesty offer to all Islamist fighters who laid down their arms.

 

More than a week of mortar and rocket duels between the Islamists and the Ethiopian-backed government spiraled into open war 10 days ago. With Eritrea accused of backing the Islamists, many had feared the conflict would engulf the Horn.

 

Ethiopia, like the United States, says the Islamists are supported by Al Qaeda. It says it has taken foreign prisoners and killed radicals from abroad, including some with British passports.

The SICC has depicted the conflict with Christian-led Ethiopia, which has one of Africa's most effective armies, as a holy war against "crusaders," tapping into decades of rivalry between the two neighbors.

Somalia gov't troops enter Mogadishu

 

By SALAD DUHUL, Associated Press Writer

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Somali government troops rolled into Mogadishu unopposed Thursday, the prime minister said, hours after an Islamic movement that tried to establish a government based on the Quran abandoned the capital.

 

The Islamic militia promised a last stand in southern Somalia.

 

"We are in Mogadishu," Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Gedi said after meeting with local clan leaders to discuss the handover of the city. "We are coordinating our forces to take control of Mogadishu."

 

Gedi was welcomed to the town of Afgoye on the outskirts of Mogadishu by dozens of traditional leaders from the capital and hundreds of government and Ethiopian troops who have been fighting for more than a week against the Islamic militia. The Islamic fighters had at one point taken over the capital and most of southern Somalia.

 

The Islamic movement's retreat early Thursday, which its leaders called tactical, was followed by looting by clan militiamen, some of whom had been allied to the Islamists. It was a chilling reminder of the chaos that had once ruled Mogadishu.

 

Gunfire could he heard in many parts of the city and witnesses said at least several people had been killed.

 

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi vowed to inflict total defeat on the Islamic movement and said he hoped the fighting would be over "in days, if not in a few weeks."

 

"Forces of the transitional federal government and Ethiopia are on the outskirts of Mogadishu now," he told reporters in Ethiopia's capital, Addis Ababa.

 

"We are discussing what we need to do to make sure Mogadishu does not descend into chaos. We will not let Mogadishu burn."

 

Mogadishu's clan leaders, though, have the greatest influence over whether order or lawlessness follows the retreat of the Islamic movement known as the Council of Islamic Courts.

 

President Abdullahi Yusuf said Thursday his troops were not a threat to the people of Mogadishu.

 

"The government is committed to solving every problem that may face Somalia through dialogue and peaceful ways," the statement said.

 

Mohamed Jama Furuh, a former warlord and current member of parliament, claimed control of the capital's seaport on behalf of the government at midday on Thursday. His militia had controlled the port before Islamic forces took over.

 

"The port is now in my hands. I want to provide security and protect it from looting ... until we hand it over to any other administration," Furuh told The

 

Associated Press by telephone.

Abdirahman Janaqow, a top leader in the Islamic movement, said he had ordered his forces out of Mogadishu to avoid bloodshed.

 

"We want to face our enemy and their stooges ... away from civilians," Abdirahman Janaqow said in a telephone interview.

 

Yusuf Ibrahim, a former Islamic movement fighter who quit Thursday, said only the most hardcore fighters were still opposing the government and its Ethiopian backers. He said they numbered about 3,000 and they were headed to the port city of Kismayo, south of Mogadishu, which the Islamic forces captured in September.

 

 

Ahmed Ali Harare, the military commander for the region, told the AP they would not quit Kismayo without a fight.

 

Witnesses reported seeing a large number of foreign fighters in the convoys heading south. Islamic movement leaders had called on foreign Muslims to join their "holy war" against Ethiopia, which has a large Christian population. Hundreds were believed to have answered the call.

 

Islamic fighters have gone door-to-door in Kismayo, recruiting children as young as 12 to make a last stand on behalf of the Islamic courts, according to a confidential U.N. situation report citing the families of boys taken to the frontline town of Jilib, 65 miles north of Kismayo.

 

Residents told the AP Islamic leader Hassan Dahir Aweys had arrived in Jilib with hundreds of fighters aboard 45 pickup trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns.

 

In Iraq, an insurgent group linked to al-Qaida in Iraq urged Muslims to support the Islamists in Somalia who were abandoning the capital Thursday and fleeing government forces, according to an Internet statement.

 

The so-called Islamic State of Iraq - a coalition of Sunni insurgent groups, chief among them al-Qaida in Iraq - said all Muslims should "stand by the side of their brothers in Somalia and to support them financially, with weapons and men and with prayers."

 

The Islamic movement took Mogadishu six months ago and then advanced across most of southern Somalia, often without fighting. Then Ethiopian troops went on the attack in support of the government last week.

 

Before the Islamists established control, Mogadishu had been ruled by competing clans who came together to support the Islamic courts. Now, the clans could return to fighting one another and may reject the government's authority.

Somalia's complex clan system has been the basis of politics and identity here for centuries. But due to clan fighting, the country has not had an effective government since 1991, when clan-based warlords overthrew a dictator and then turned on one another.

right....i wish war would end forever!!

 

 

 

but that is a stupid thing to say..:disappointed:

Mubarak calls Saddam execution pictures "barbaric"

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has said pictures of the execution of Sadam Hussein were "revolting and barbaric" and that experts considered his trial under occupation illegal.

 

In his first comments on the execution, which took place on the first day of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim Feast of the Sacrifice, last Saturday, Mubarak told the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth the timing was "unreasonable."

 

In the interview, he said he had written to President Bush asking him to postpone the execution, arguing that it would not be helpful at that time. He did not say how Bush responded.

 

"Then the pictures of the execution were revolting and barbaric, and I am not discussing here whether he deserved it or not. As for the trial, all experts in international law said it was an illegal trial because it was under occupation.

 

"Also, there was a conspiracy to carry out the execution before the end of the year," he added.

 

Mubarak and Saddam were friendly in the 1980s but fell out over the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

 

Mubarak had advised the United States not to invade Iraq to overthrow Saddam, saying that it would lead to chaos.

No breakthrough after Israel-Egypt talks

 

By SALAH NASRAWI and STEVE WEIZMAN, Associated Press Writers

SHARM EL-SHEIK, Egypt - Overshadowed by an Israeli raid into the Palestinian territories, a summit between Israel and Egypt achieved little in reviving the long-stalled Mideast peace process, highlighting instead the disagreements between Israel and its Arab neighbors.

 

 

The summit came amid international calls for Israel and the Palestinians to make a renewed effort to end their dispute in the interest of stabilizing the region in general and Iraq in particular. It also comes ahead of an expected Mideast visit by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice later this month.

 

Speaking during a news conference after meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Egypt's President Hisni Mubarak condemned the Israeli raid in the city of Ramallah hours earlier that killed four Palestinian civilians and wounded 20 others.

 

The Egyptian president said he voiced his "displeasure" to Olmert for what had just happened and stressed that "Israel's and the region's security would be achieved only by serious endeavors toward peace."

 

Mubarak, a key mediator between the Palestinians and Israel, also pushed Israel to hold talks with Syria and urged it to pursue peace with the Palestinians despite the rise of the Hamas militant group.

 

Egypt is eager to broker peace between the Palestinians and Israel, and Mubarak said he would welcome a meeting bringing together himself, Olmert,

 

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Jordan's King Abdullah II.

Significant obstacles block the start of a new peace process, including the continued captivity of an Israeli soldier seized by Hamas-linked militants in June. Egypt has been trying to broker a deal for Cpl. Gilad Shalit's release, and many in Israel waited — in vain — for a breakthrough at the summit Thursday.

 

Olmert thanked Mubarak for his efforts to secure Shalit's freedom, and said Israel was ready to meet with Abbas, but he rejected any dealings with Hamas, the Islamic militant group that controls the Palestinian Cabinet and calls for Israel's destruction.

 

"We are ready at any time to meet with Abu Mazen (Abbas) and have real negotiations and have an atmosphere for peace," Olmert said, adding that Abbas was a "partner for peace," while Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal was not.

Mubarak hosted Abbas at a summit here on Dec. 27, four days after Olmert met with the Palestinian president for talks to thaw relations between the two sides. The summit on Thursday was expected to build on these efforts but did not appear to achieve any major breakthroughs.

 

Mubarak called on Hamas and Abbas' moderate Fatah party — who have clashed violently in recent weeks — to reach a cease-fire so that Palestinians could negotiate a peace with Israel. "They must unite and solve their problems, and then we can see how to deal with the Israeli side so they can sit at the negotiating table and reach peace," Mubarak said. "It is a tough task but (it) can't be skipped."

 

Olmert expressed concerns to Mubarak about the ongoing smuggling of weapons and money from Egypt into the Gaza Strip. Israel and the West have imposed a financial embargo on the Hamas government, but top Hamas leaders have kept the government afloat by bringing suitcases packed with millions of dollars over the border.

 

Mubarak said he was doing his best to stop weapons smuggling into Gaza, but said the cash-filled suitcases were not illegal as long as they were declared.

 

He also urged Israel to accept Syria's offers to restart peace talks that broke down seven years ago. Olmert has rejected the offers, citing Syria's support for Hamas and the Hezbollah guerrilla group in Lebanon.

 

Mubarak also expressed hopes for securing Shalit's release soon.

 

A Hamas official on Sunday claimed progress was made toward an agreement exchanging Shalit for some of the 9,100 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons.

 

A senior Hamas official in Syria on Thursday said his group was ready to give Israel a video of Shalit if it agreed to release Palestinian women prisoners and other detainees.

 

Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas' political bureau in Damascus, said in a telephone interview that Shalit is alive.

:rolleyes:

Mubarak calls Saddam execution pictures "barbaric"

 

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has said pictures of the execution of Sadam Hussein were "revolting and barbaric" and that experts considered his trial under occupation illegal.

 

In his first comments on the execution, which took place on the first day of Eid al-Adha, the Muslim Feast of the Sacrifice, last Saturday, Mubarak told the Israeli newspaper Yedioth Ahronoth the timing was "unreasonable."

 

In the interview, he said he had written to President Bush asking him to postpone the execution, arguing that it would not be helpful at that time. He did not say how Bush responded.

 

"Then the pictures of the execution were revolting and barbaric, and I am not discussing here whether he deserved it or not. As for the trial, all experts in international law said it was an illegal trial because it was under occupation.

"Also, there was a conspiracy to carry out the execution before the end of the year," he added.

 

Mubarak and Saddam were friendly in the 1980s but fell out over the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990.

 

Mubarak had advised the United States not to invade Iraq to overthrow Saddam, saying that it would lead to chaos.

 

 

i agree totally.. saddam was a bloody-minded dictator, yes. he should be killed maybe.. but the timing was bad, also he was not allowed to finish his prayer and those pictures and videos...bullshit..

 

and invasion of iraq... i think almost all conscious iraqi people prefer a dictator to a foreign invader..i don't know, if i were living in iraq i would prefer it.. saddam caused loads of deaths of civils but the invasion not only resulted in (still) deaths but it also triggered a chaos.. not need to mention about the loss of cultural, social and economical wealths in the future..

Residents report new US raid in south Somalia, government denies

 

MOGADISHU (AFP) - Residents have reported a new US air strike on suspected Al-Qaeda targets in southern Somalia, but government officials denied the accounts and the Pentagon said it had no information.

 

Elders in the area where the United States has confirmed hitting an alleged extremist position north of the port of Kismayo said the new attack was launched near the towns of Badade and Afmadow.

 

"Elders in Badade and Afmadow who made a radio contact with us confirmed there was an American air strike in the same area today," Yusuf Ismail Aden, a resident of Kismayo told AFP in Mogadishu by phone.

 

"They said they could hear overflights in the morning," he said.

 

However, Somali Information Minister Ali Jama said he was unaware of any air operations in the area other than those by Ethiopian troops backing the

 

Somali government, which have been underway for weeks.

 

"There are operations going on in southern Somalia by Ethiopian and Somali forces," he told AFP. "They might be either ground or air."

 

Somali government spokesman Abdirahim Dinari said the resident accounts were "nonsense."

 

"It is nonsense," he told AFP. "It is fake news. We do not have any information about the alleged airstrikes. I do not know where these reports ... are coming from."

 

In Washington, a Pentagon spokesman, Chris Isleib said he had no information on new strikes.

 

On Tuesday, the United States acknowledged it had carried out its first overy military action in Somalia since 1994 on Monday with a targetted air strike on

 

Al-Qaeda's main leaders in southern Somalia.

The Pentagon said an AC-130 gunship had struck positions in southern Somalia early Monday in an operation against several Al-Qaeda operatives believed hiding with elements of Somalia's Islamist movement.

 

But it denied US involvement in at least two helicopter gunship attacks in the region reported by the Somali defense ministry on Tuesday.

 

Washington accuses the Somali Islamists of harboring at least three Al-Qaeda figures, two of whom are believed to be responsible for the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Their fate is not known, officials said.

 

It was the first known US military strike in the country since the withdrawal of US forces there in 1994, and follows a rout of Islamist forces by Ethiopian and Somali government troops.

 

Among the Al-Qaeda militants believed in Somalia are Fazul Abdullah Mohammed and Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, whom the United States holds responsible for the embassy bombings that killed 224 people, mostly Africans.

 

Another is Abu Taha al-Sudani, a Sudanese alleged to be an explosives expert close to Al-Qaeda leader Osama ben Laden and whom the Somali government claimed led the Islamists in recent fighting.

 

Somali elders said at least 19 people had died in Monday's and Tuesday's attacks, while government suggested the figure was higher.

New U.S. strikes hit sites in Somalia: govt source

 

By Sahal Abdulle

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - U.S. forces hunting al Qaeda suspects hit four locations in new air strikes in Somalia on Wednesday, a Somali government source said, as criticism mounted over Washington's military intervention.

 

"As we speak now, the area is being bombarded by the American air force," the source told Reuters.

 

He said the attacks hit an area close to Ras Kamboni, a coastal village near the Kenyan border where many fugitive Islamists are believed holed-up after being defeated by Ethiopian troops defending Somalia's interim government.

 

Four places were hit -- Hayo, Garer, Bankajirow and Badmadowe, the source said. "Bankajirow was the last Islamist holdout. Bankajirow and Badmadowe were hit hardest," he added.

 

Lawmaker Abdirashid Mohamed Hidig said at least 50 people were killed in strikes he said were carried out by U.S. and Ethiopian planes.

 

It was unclear how either Hidig or the government source were able to distinguish between Ethiopian and U.S. aircraft.

 

"Yesterday I personally saw the planes striking. The air strikes resumed this morning," Hidig told reporters in the port of Kismayu after returning from a tour of the attacked areas.

 

"The worst loss has befallen civilians since the fleeing Islamists are hiding among the people there," he said, adding he was airlifted to the sites in an Ethiopian helicopter.

 

Pentagon officials confirmed one air attack on Monday, as part of a wider offensive including Ethiopian planes.

 

U.S. officials said the strike was aimed at an al Qaeda cell that includes suspects in the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in east Africa and a 2002 attack on an Israeli-owned Kenyan hotel.

 

Somali officials said many died in Monday's strike -- the first overt U.S. military action in Somalia since a disastrous humanitarian mission ended in 1994.

 

A clan elder reported a second U.S. air strike on Tuesday, but that was not confirmed by other sources.

 

The U.S. actions were defended by Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf, but criticized by others including new U.N. chief Ban Ki-moon, the EU, and former colonial power Italy.

 

"The secretary-general is concerned about the new dimension this kind of action could introduce to the conflict and the possible escalation of hostilities that may result," U.N. spokeswoman Michele Montas said.

 

Italian Foreign Minister Massimo D'Alema said Rome opposed "unilateral initiatives that could spark new tensions in an area that is already very destabilized."

 

EMBASSY BOMBINGS

 

Monday's U.S. attack on a southern village by an AC-130 plane firing automatic cannon was believed to have killed one of three al Qaeda suspects wanted for the 1998 embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania, a U.S. intelligence official said.

 

 

Washington is seeking a handful of al Qaeda members including Abu Talha al-Sudani, who U.S. intelligence believes is the network's east Africa commander.

Critics of the action say it could misfire by creating strong Somali resentment and feeding Islamist militancy.

 

"Before this, it was just tacit support for Ethiopia. Now the U.S. has fingerprints on the intervention and is going to be held more accountable," said Horn of Africa expert Ken Menkhaus. "This has the potential for a backlash both in Somalia and the region."

 

Ethiopia sent troops across the border late last month to oust Islamists who had held most of the south since June and threatened to overrun the weak government at its Baidoa base.

 

In the capital Mogadishu, residents were woken by gunfire before dawn on Wednesday in an area housing Ethiopian and Somali troops, who were targeted in a rocket attack on Tuesday.

 

One corpse lay in the street, witnesses said.

 

In another attack, at least one person was killed on Wednesday when Somali militiamen fired a rocket-propelled grenade at an Ethiopian truck, missing it but hitting a house, a government source said.

 

Quoting U.S. and French military sources, ABC News said U.S. special forces were working with Ethiopian troops on the ground in operations inside Somalia.

 

But Interior Minister Hussein Mohamed Aideed denied the report. "There are no American ground forces inside Somalia. The American involvement is limited to air and sea," he said.

 

President Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi have pledged to restore order in Somalia after entering the capital for the first time since they took office in 2004 at the head of an internationally-recognized interim government.

 

Both have called for African peacekeepers to help fill a security vacuum that is expected when Ethiopian troops pull out.

 

The government has called on militias to report to various police stations for recruitment in the country's security forces, a government spokesman said.

(Additional reporting by Guled Mohamed in Mogadishu, David Morgan and Sue Pleming in Washington, Philip Pullella in Rome, Irwin Arieff in the UN, Andrew Cawthorne in Nairobi and Noor Ali in Garissa)

Senior al-Qaida suspect reported killed

 

By The Associated Press

FAZUL ABUDLLAH MOHAMMED: A 32-year-old senior al-Qaida suspect who has a $5 million bounty on his head for allegedly planning the 1998 attacks on the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania that killed 225 people. Fazul, who was born in the Comoros Islands, is also suspected of planning the nearly simultaneous car bombing of an Israeli-owned hotel and failed attempt to shoot down an Israeli airliner in Kenya in 2002. Thirteen people died in the hotel bombing. Fazul joined al-Qaida in Afghanistan and trained there with Osama bin Laden before becoming a teacher at a religious school in northern Kenya in the mid-1990s. He was captured by Kenyan police in 2002 for credit card fraud, but escaped after a day and fled to Somalia where authorities believe he has been hiding ever since.

More peacekeepers heading to Somalia

 

By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN and TOM MALITI, Associated Press Writers

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Three battalions of peacekeepers from Uganda and Nigeria will be airlifted as soon as possible into Somalia amid rising violence that threatens the government's grip on power, an African Union official said Wednesday.

 

Somalia's Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi began imposing martial law in areas his government controls, beginning with a curfew Tuesday night in the southern town of Baidoa.

Gedi warned remnants of an ousted Islamic movement have returned to towns and cities and were planning to try to further destabilize the lawless country.

 

"From now on martial law would be implemented across government-controlled areas, starting with Baidoa," Gedi said late Tuesday. The measure was taken under a three-month emergency law passed by parliament on Jan. 13.

 

Since last month when Somali government troops with crucial support from Ethiopian soldiers, tanks and war planes ousted the Council of Islamic Courts, factional violence has again become a feature of life in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.

 

Ethiopia says it does not have the resources to stay as a peacekeeping force and already has begun withdrawing, presenting the possibility of a dangerous power vacuum.

 

In neighboring Ethiopia, a senior African Union official said Wednesday that three battalions of peacekeepers from Uganda and Nigeria were ready to be deployed in Somalia and will be airlifted in as soon as possible.

 

The African Union was pressing ahead with its peacekeeping mission to Somalia despite securing only half the 8,000 troops needed at a key summit of African leaders that ended Tuesday. So far five nations — Uganda, Nigeria, Malawi, Burundi and Ghana — have pledged around 4,000 troops.

 

The African Union official, speaking to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said securing the 8,000 troops would not be difficult.

 

The main challenge, he said, was raising the estimated $34 million a month to pay for the mission.

 

The EU has pledged $20 million for a peacekeeping force and $40 million in overall support has been offered by the U.S. The U.S. also has pledged to offer airlift support.

 

An important consideration for the African Union peacekeeping mission is ensuring the majority of troops are Muslim, given that most Somalis are Muslim. The troops will have a narrow mandate: protecting the transitional government.

 

On Tuesday, Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf agreed to a national reconciliation conference. But that was followed Wednesday with what could be seen as a setback for building unity: Sheik Adan Mohamed Nor was elected speaker of parliament. The former speaker, Sharif Hassan Sheik Aden, was voted out on Jan. 17 because of his close ties with the Islamic movement.

 

Both the EU and the U.S. have called on the government to reinstate Aden as speaker, saying he could play an important role in promoting reconciliation and peace. His replacement is a government loyalist.

 

On Tuesday, extremists in Somalia said they would try to kill any peacekeepers. In a videotape posted on the official Web site of the Islamic movement, a hooded gunman read a statement saying that any African peacekeepers would be seen as invaders.

 

The United States has accused Somalia's Council of Islamic Courts of sheltering suspects in the 1998 al-Qaida bombings of U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. Osama Bin Laden has said Somalia is a battleground in his war on the West. The U.S. launched at least two airstrikes against fleeing Islamic fighters, although details of the attacks are unknown.

 

Somalia has not had an effective national government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another, throwing the country into anarchy. The transitional government was formed in 2004 with U.N. help.

Kenya holding 2 Americans as suspects

 

By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN and TOM MALITI, Associated Press Writer

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Two Americans were among at least 10 foreigners caught by Kenyan police at the Somali border after allegedly fighting with Somalia's ousted Islamic movement, an official said Friday.

 

One of the Americans is wanted in the U.S. for links to radical movements, the Kenyan police official said. Kenya was preparing to deport the foreigners, seized after escaping advancing Ethiopian troops who helped oust the Islamists, to their home countries.

 

In the Somali capital, an explosion at an Islamic school for women and girls Friday capped one of the worst weeks of violence since the Islamic group was routed and the government took on the challenge of restoring order.

 

One student was killed and six were wounded in the attack on Umu-A'isha religious school in southern Mogadishu, witnesses said. The attackers were unknown.

 

Overnight, at least eight people were killed and 20 were injured in mortar attacks on Mogadishu's seaport, a hotel and an Ethiopian military base.

 

Violence has been escalating in the city riven by clan rivalries and believed to still be harboring remnants of the Islamic movement, whose members have vowed to wage an Iraq-style insurgency.

 

Deputy Defense Minister Salad Ali Jelle blamed the attacks on hardline remnants of the Islamic group, known as the Council of Islamic Courts. He said his interim government was in control.

 

"We have suspects and we know the areas where they plan their attacks," he told The Associated Press by telephone. "We will punish them."

 

An Islamic movement official, who asked not to be named for fear of reprisals, denied his group was behind the attacks, calling them a popular uprising.

 

Eric Laroche, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, said the attacks have been relatively isolated and infrequent but the international community must act urgently to prevent further deterioration. He said his agency would soon help the government develop a police force.

 

Meanwhile, the UN Security Council in New York renewed its support for the

African Union's decision to deploy peacekeepers in Somalia, stressing that such a force was needed to help restore peace and stability in the war-ravaged country.

 

In a statement, the council "underlined the urgency of its (the AU force's) deployment in order to help create the conditions for the withdrawal of all other foreign forces from Somalia and the lifting of emergency measures currently in place."

 

The council also welcomed a decision by Somali President Abdulahi Yusuf to convene a national reconciliation conference aimed at trying to end 16 years of conflict in the country — a step that paved the way for the deployment of the AU force, despite strong opposition to foreign peacekeepers by many in the country including within Yusuf's administration.

 

Among the foreigners in Kenyan custody were four Britons, a Frenchman, a Tunisian woman, Syrians and other Arabs, said the Kenyan official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the information. The date of their deportation was not yet known.

 

Kenyan authorities have told the British Embassy that four British nationals are being held, an embassy spokeswoman said. The men were detained on Jan. 20, she said.

 

"We continue to press urgently for consular access so that we can confirm their nationality and offer every assistance," the spokeswoman said on condition of anonymity in line with embassy policy.

 

One of the Americans was arrested with his 9-year-old child, the Kenyan police official said. The U.S. Embassy had no comment.

 

 

Kenya has deported at least 34 people to Somalia, including people who hold Canadian, Eritrean and Kenyan passports. Kenyan authorities are holding up to 70 people believed to have fled Somalia.

 

Harun Ndubi, a lawyer who represents some of the people in Kenyan custody, said the deportations violated human rights conventions.

Senior Kenyan foreign ministry official Thuita Mwangi said that he had no details about anyone being held in Kenya after fleeing Somalia.