Somali
militants: We’ll heed al-Qaida’s
call
Sabti,Jan,6,2007
Government
to postpone disarmament program;
3 killed during protest
MOGADISHU,
Somalia - The Somali government
on Saturday said it was
indefinitely postponing a
mandatory disarmament program,
while Islamic fighters hiding in
Mogadishu said they will heed an
al-Qaida call for guerrilla
attacks and suicide bombings
against Ethiopian troops.
Abdirahman
Dinari, spokesman for Somalia’s
transitional government, told
The Associated Press that the
prime minister “has decided to
postpone disarming people by
force until an unspecified
time.” Thursday had been the
deadline for residents to
voluntarily give up their arms.
Ethiopian
troops and Somali protesters
exchanged fire, leaving three
people dead, witnesses said, as
hundreds of Somalis demonstrated
against the foreign forces and
the disarmament drive.
The
protesters hurled stones and
burned tires, wreathing streets
in smoke and reviving memories
of the chaos that had largely
stopped during six months of
strict Islamist rule before the
Somalia Islamic Courts Council
was ousted last week.
“The
Ethiopians opened fire and shot
dead a young boy and a lady,
they also killed another
person,” a witness said. Other
witnesses agreed
AP.CNN
Somalia is
trying to train its own military
and police while the plan for an
international force is put in
place.
The
Islamic movement has vowed to
launch an Iraq-style guerrilla
war, raising the prospect of
bloody reprisals against foreign
peacekeepers. Somalia’s interior
minister said Thursday that
3,500 Islamic fighters were
still hiding in the capital,
Mogadishu.
Kenya
closed its border amid fears
militants would slip across the
frontier. The United Nations
said thousands of refugees were
also near the border, unable to
seek safety in Kenya.
A meeting
of U.S., European Union, African
and Arab diplomats ended in
Kenya on Friday with a U.S.
pledge to provide $40 million to
Somalia in political,
humanitarian and peacekeeping
assistance, and a plan to ask
more African nations to send
troops to help stabilize the
country. Uganda has pledged at
least 1,000 peacekeepers.
The EU
said it also would help pay for
a peacekeeping force envisioned
at 8,000 soldiers.
On Friday,
U.S. warships patrolled offshore
to prevent militiamen from
escaping by sea.
Associated Press (AP)
