| The interior minister of the northern region of breakaway Somaliland, Ismail Aden Osman, has disclosed that a local group of fighters linked to Al-Qaeda network had carried out the recent killings of foreign aid workers in the area. A Kenyan aid worker was killed and a German was injured in the region recently. Both of them were working for the German Agency for Technical Assistance and were attacked near the town of Berbera. The minister said five suspects were arrested for questioning. He said the suspects had told interrogators all the attacks were launched by members of the same extremist group. âThe detainees said, âour aim is to kill every agency (humanitarian) worker for we believe that they should not remain in this country.' The detainees told the investigating committee that every region in Somaliland has an Al-Qaeda leader,â Osman was quoted as saying. He said the suspects may also have links to a Somali resistance group called Al-Itihad Al-Islamiya. He said the rebelsâ base was in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. âThey (the detainees) confessed that the SOS teachers were targeted because they were spreading (fundamentalist) Christianity,â Osman said. The minister added that the detainees had told interrogators they did not know the names of their commanders; they knew only their immediate superior, for the sake of operational security. |