By Mohammed Ibrahim And Jeffrey Gettleman

Mogadishu, Somalia, September 19, 2009 — Somali insurgents mounted a brazen suicide attack against top Somali and African Union officials meeting on Thursday to plan a major offensive in Mogadishu, driving two explosives-laden trucks marked “U.N.” deep into a fortified base near the airport here and detonating them at a fuel depot and the office of an American logistics company, according to witnesses and African Union officials.

The attack, which suggested that the insurgents had deeply infiltrated Somali security forces, killed the second in command of the African Union peacekeeping force and seriously wounded several other commanders.

“This was very tactical,” said one peacekeeping official who was not authorized to speak publicly. “It’s like these guys had a map of the place.”

Somalia’s weak but internationally recognized transitional government is facing intense resistance from insurgent groups that seem to be increasingly well schooled in terrorist tactics.

The Shabaab, Islamist extremists with growing ties to Al Qaeda, claimed responsibility, saying the attack was revenge for the American commando strike this week that killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, one of the most wanted Islamic militants in Africa. “We did this,” said Sheik Ali Mohamoud Rage, a Shabaab spokesman, adding, “God helped us.”

He accused the Somali government and the African Union of “planning to launch attacks against us after Ramadan,” the Muslim holy month, which ends next week.

Heavy machine-gun fire rattled for hours afterward, making it difficult to gain clear information about casualties. Some witnesses said about 15 people were killed. Among the dead was the deputy commander of the African Union peacekeeping force, Maj. Gen. Juvenal Niyoyunguruza of Burundi, officials said. Top Somali commanders, including the police chief, were among the wounded.

Several Somalis said the United Nations trucks had been stolen in either Baidoa or Jowhar, central Somalia towns that used to have a large United Nations presence but recently came under Shabaab control.

Around 5,000 African Union troops are in Somalia protecting the transitional government. Insurgents have relentlessly been attacking the peacekeepers, often with suicide bombs and roadside explosives. Somalia has been steeped in chaos since 1991, when clan militias ousted the country’s last central government and then turned on one another.

Many analysts and diplomats believe that the current transitional government, led by moderate Islamists, has the best chance to bring stability in years because it has grass-roots support. But its military remains weak and is widely believed to be infiltrated by insurgents, as the attack on Thursday implied.

Earlier on Thursday, the Shabaab distributed a statement to journalists setting conditions for the release of a French security adviser who was kidnapped in July.

The militants demanded that the French government stop supporting the transitional government. They also sought the withdrawal of African Union peacekeepers, the French antipiracy warships patrolling Somalia’s waters and the French security companies operating in Somalia. The statement also called for the release of Shabaab prisoners held in various prisons.

A spokesman for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bernard Valéro, questioned the authenticity of the statement and said France stood behind current peacekeeping operations.

The French captive is one of two security advisers who were kidnapped at a hotel in Mogadishu in July. The other captive, Marc Aubrière, held by the militia Hezb-ul-Islam, surfaced three weeks ago and gave a dramatic account of escaping.

Mohammed Ibrahim reported from Mogadishu, and Jeffrey Gettleman from Lamu, Kenya. Eric Schmitt contributed reporting from Washington.

Source: New York Times, September 17, 2009

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