Somali leader escapes death as militants shell airport
ABOUT 20 people were killed and scores seriously wounded yesterday after Islamic insurgents fired mortars at Somalia's airport as the president was boarding a plane.
Police said the president was unhurt and his plane took off safely.
Somalia's capital sees near-daily bloodshed as a powerful insurgent group with links to al-Qaeda tries to overthrow the fragile United Nations (UN)-backed government and push out some 5,000 African Union (AU) peacekeepers. Both sides of the conflict have been accused of indiscriminate shelling.
"We have seen at least 20 dead bodies lying in the streets, most of them civilians," said Ali Muse, the head of Mogadishu's ambulance service. He said about 60 people were wounded as mortars slammed into residential areas.
The Associated Press (AP) yesterday quoted police spokesman, Abdullahi Hassan Barise, as saying that the shelling started after insurgents fired toward President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed's plane.
"The mortars hit the perimeter of the airport. The plane carrying the president took off safely," he said.
The violence - deadlier than many of the battles in this once-beautiful seaside city - followed a pattern that witnesses say is becoming all too common. First, insurgents fire at government or AU targets. Then government and AU forces respond by shelling insurgent bases, most of which are in residential areas.
The result is that civilians bear the brunt of the bloodshed in Somalia's seemingly endless war, which has killed thousands of people and maimed countless others.
"What cannot be denied is that most of the fire comes from the bases of the African Union, and they hit and kill civilians in the rebel-controlled areas," said Ahmed Abdulahi, a businessman in Mogadishu.
"People have eyes and ears, they know what is going on," he said.
The African Union denies firing into residential areas. AU peacekeeping force spokesman, Barigye Bahoku, said insurgents are actually shelling the residential areas they control to make it appear the AU is responsible.
But many residents sense a growing anger toward a peacekeeping force that has long lamented that it is undermanned. The force is meant to have 8,000 troops, but the reinforcements have not arrived. The troops come under regular attack and mostly are confined to bases in Mogadishu for safety.
"It is ruthless and inhumane to target innocent civilians, but it happens every day here and nobody bothers to mention it," said Sheik Ali Mohamud Siyad, the trader's chairman at Bakara Market, which was hit with mortar shells yesterday.
Somalia has not had an effective government for 18 years, since warlords overthrew longtime dictator, Mohamed Siad Barre. The warlords then turned on each other, plunging the Horn of Africa nation into chaos and anarchy.
Somalia's lawlessness also has allowed piracy to flourish off its coast, making the waterway one of the most dangerous in the world.
Meanwhile, Somali pirates with automatic weapons seized a cargo ship off Africa's east coast and are holding its 26 crew members hostage.
The pirates captured the Panamanian-flagged MV Al Khaliq some 320 kilometers west of the Seychelles islands early yesterday, a statement from the European Union's anti-piracy task force said.
Noel Choong, who heads the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting centere in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, said the pirates attacked the Indian-managed ship with automatic weapons.
Choong said the hijacking demonstrated a new trend for Somali pirates: actively targeting vessels very far off the coast during clear weather. He said it was the third such hijacking in a week. Pirates hijacked a Singapore-flagged bulk container last Thursday and a Chinese cargo ship on Monday.
Choong said the latest attacks brought the number of attacks off the coast of Somalia and the Gulf of Aden to 178 this year, with 36 ships hijacked. He said pirates are holding seven ships and 165 crew members.
The EU task force, Operation Atalanta, said pirates also unsuccessfully attempted to hijack the Italian-flagged MV Jolly Rosso off the Kenyan coast yesterday.
The Gulf of Aden is one of the busiest and most dangerous waterways in the world. Somalia has been ravaged by violence and anarchy since 1991 and piracy has flourished off its coast.
Somali pirates seized more than 40 vessels in 2008, pocketing an estimated $30 million in ransom.
