Eritrea: Attempting To Create Tension In Puntland

Djibouti, June 22, 2007 – The Horn of Africa US Military base in Djibouti: Us warplanes are overflying the northern Somali region of Puntland in preparation for airstrikes against suspected Al-Qaeda fugitives, more than a week after US warships shelled the area.

The commander of Somalia's national police force, Gen. Abdiqyebdid, who is in Boasaso, the commercial town of the semi-autonomous province of Puntland, is due to open army training courses for Puntland police in Armo settlement in the province, Puntland officials said.

Therefore The president of the semi-autonomous province of Puntland, north Somalia, condemned the recently formed anti-Ethiopian bloc in Asmara, Eritrea, for attempting to create tension in his regional administration.

Adde Mussa, who talked to journalists in the province, said the Asmara group was trying to influence some members in his government whom he said were given money to disquiet the management in Puntland.

"So called the Free Parliament and Union of Islamic Courts members in Eritrea have joined up to pay money to some Puntland government members who were sacked, but Puntland will not be affected by such manipulation continued by that alliance , " he said.

"Puntland troops resisted the invasion carried out by a group of Somali and foreign terrorists in Bargal settlement and those terrorists were definitely linked to the groups in Asmara," he added.

On June 2, a US navy destroyer shelled the mountainous settlement of Bargal in Puntland, killing at least 12 Islamist fighters, including foreigners, who were believed to be allied to extremist groups, Puntland officials said.

Also earlier this year, a US plane bombed positions in southern Somalia after Ethiopia-backed Somali government forces ousted a powerful Islamist movement from the country's southern and central regions. Local elders said more than 100 civilians were killed.

The targets were suspected Al-Qaeda operatives blamed both for the 1998 US embassy bombings and the 2002 suicide attack on an Israeli-owned hotel in the Kenyan port of Mombassa that killed 15 people.

Mussa said that the mayor of Bosaso, Qadar Abdi Hashi, was sacked because he received kickback from the Asmra bloc. "He and 5 others in Bosaso Environment Council were bribed by Asmara group to create violence and political tension in the region," he said. .   The Geeska Afrika Magazine

Sources: Shabelle Media Network