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| East/Subsaharan Africa |
| Somali gunnies shoot it out... |
| 2002-10-29 |
| Hundreds of rival militiamen armed with heavy weapons fought for control of a strategic border town in southwestern Somalia on Tuesday, leaving 25 dead and 37 wounded. More than 14 armored trucks mounted with heavy machine guns entered the town of Luq, near the border with Ethiopia. At least one woman and a boy were caught in the crossfire and killed. "Yarrr! A cease-fire, is it? Bring up the heavy weapons, lads!" Ahmed Bulleh Mohamud, the Luq district commissioner, said that the fighting started with an attack by a rival militia from Bulo Hawo, 50 miles west of Luq. He said his militia fended off the attack, killing 23 attackers and wounding 30 more. Mohamud said seven of his men were wounded in the fighting. "Yarr! Keep shootin', boys! We're mowing' 'em down like flies!... Ow! Hey, watch it! That hurts!" A spokesman for the rival militia, the Marehan faction of the Somalia Reconciliation and Rehabilitation Commission, said only three of his group's men were killed. Ali Mohamud Ganey also denied that there was a political motivation for the attack. "Yarrr! But each of the three was kill't eight times! That makes 23 deaders!" "Ummm... 24." "Yarrr?" "Sorry. My mistake. 23." "Yarrr. Reconciled 'em and Rehabilitated 'em, by Garrr!" Mohamud is a member of the Juba Valley Alliance, which supports the Transitional National Government in Mogadishu. The Marehan faction is backed by Ethiopia and opposes the new government. Both sides said the fighting was linked to the slaying of one of Mohamud's men on Saturday, but neither side would give details. "We don't want to talk about it. The pain's too fresh. We haven't reached closure yet... Yarrr! More heavy weapons, over there!" |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |
| #2 I personaly back the traditional wing of the Juba Valley Alliance, niftier rags for uniforms. The reform wing just has no imagination. |
| Posted by: Chuck 2002-10-30 09:29:09 |
| #1 Gee, and not a single angry white male in the lot. Go figure. |
| Posted by: Jack 2002-10-30 04:58:15 |