|
By Alisha Ryu
Nairobi, November 14, 2009 – Security forces in Somalia's northern
semi-autonomous region of Puntland say three people have been arrested
in connection with the fatal shooting of a judge late Wednesday in the
commercial port town of Bosasso. The assassination may be linked to a
Puntland cell of al-Shabaab, a militant group linked with al-Qaida.
According to witnesses, two masked gunmen ambushed the judge, Sheik
Mohamed Abdi Aware, as he left a mosque. Aware died after being shot
several times in the head and chest.
In a separate incident in the regional capital Garowe, unknown gunmen
killed a local member of parliament, Ibrahim Elmi Warsame, as he headed
home from his office.
Security forces have not released any details about the three men being
held in connection with the shooting of the judge in Bosassao.
In a radio address, Puntland President Abdirahman Mohamed Farole said
the police and military are investigating both incidents and the region
has been put on high alert.
Mr. Farole says Puntland is continuing to suffer from insecurity
perpetrated by people opposed to peace.
Puntland is home to notorious pirate groups, counterfeiters, as well as
human traffickers, who smuggle thousands of people from the region to
Yemen each year. Residents in Bosasso say Judge Aware had enemies
because he had put many of the lawbreakers in jail.
Last week, the judge sentenced four men, convicted of being members of
al-Shabaab, to 15 years in prison, fueling belief among the locals the
assassination was carried out by the militant group in revenge.
Al-Shabaab is listed as a terrorist organization by the United States
and Australia for being a proxy for al-Qaida in Somalia.
Al-Shabaab militants had mainly operated in southern and central
Somalia, concentrating their efforts in establishing ultra-conservative
Islamic administrations in key towns and battling to expand their
territory to include the capital Mogadishu.
Somali sources tell VOA that al-Shabaab is beginning to mobilize in
Puntland, the northeastern region of Somalia that had been relatively
stable compared to the south since the region formed its own
administration in 1998.
The Puntland cell is believed to be under the command of the third
senior al-Shabaab leader in the organization and is based in the Bari
region, near the border of Sanaag claimed by both Puntland and the
neighboring republic of Somaliland.
Hundreds of foreign fighters are also believed to be among the ranks of
al-Shabaab, assisting in training of recruits and battling alongside
al-Shabaab fighters. One of al-Qaida's main operatives in east Africa,
Kenyan-born Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, was killed in September in southern
Somalia by U.S. Special Forces while he rode in a convoy of al-Shabaab
fighters.
Al-Shabaab carried out its largest attack to date in Somaliland and
Puntland last October, carrying out multiple near-simultaneous suicide
bombings in Bosasso and in the Somaliland capital Hargeysa. The bombings
killed at least 30 people.
Source: VOA, November 13, 2009
|
|
