Tensions are rising in northern Somalia following clashes between forces of rival regional administrations, officials said Friday, and diplomats called on all sides to show restraint. Somalia's weak federal government based in Mogadishu, in the south, has been hard-pressed to assert control in the south and was unlikely to have any influence in the confrontation between the autonomous Puntland region and the breakaway republic of Somaliland. Hassan Dahir Mohamud, Puntland's vice president, told The Associated Press that one soldier was killed and three others wounded. Somaliland officials had earlier in the week claimed on local radio stations that their troops killed three Puntland soldiers during a gunbattle at a village in a region called Sool.
| "There is no Dana. Only Sool!" |
| "Are you the Gatekeeper?" "Are you the Keymaster?" |
| Give the Somalis a chance at just a touch of stability and prosperity, and they throw it away. |
"And I looked, and he opened the sixth seal, and behold, there was a great earthquake. And the sun became as black as sack cloth, and the moon became as blood."
Mohamud said his administration dispatched more troops to the contested region to stop forces from Somaliland crossing into Puntland. Mohamud said that Puntland had also arrested seven men carrying explosives in vehicles with Somaliland registration plates in Buhodle, a town bordering Puntland and Ethiopia. ``We handed the men to Ethiopian security forces for further investigation,'' said Mohamud.