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| International |
| Gunmen attack home of Somalia's interior minister |
| 2002-05-24 |
| Hundreds of gunmen opposed to Somalia's transitional government attacked the home of Interior Minister Dahir Dayah on Friday, trapping him inside and forcing neighbors to flee. Several people were killed in the fighting that followed the 8 a.m. attack on Dayah's house by gunmen loyal to militia leader Mohamed Dhereh. Police chief Abdi Hassan Awaleh Qeybdid said police loyal to the government had been deployed to protect Dayah and his house. He gave no further details. This is the Somali national sport... The reason for the attack was not clear, but Dayah said he believed it was related to a clan dispute. "All I know is that I'm being attacked by uniformed militiamen," Dayah told The Associated Press in telephone interview from his besieged house. In Somalia, you don't even need a reason for an attack... Dhereh, who is from the same Abgal sub-clan as Dayah, is a former legislator in the transitional government who defected a year ago to an alliance of Ethiopian-backed faction leaders known as the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council. Dhereh is based in Jowhar, a SRRC-controlled town 55 miles north of Mogadishu. He and his men entered Mogadishu late Thursday. The two main towns along the road from Jowhar to Mogadishu are controlled by the SRRC, and the region is predominantly inhabited by members of the Abgal sub-clan. So there you have it. If that's not a reason, I don't know what is... |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |