Ethiopia's Prime Minister Meles Zenawi addresses a news conference in his Palace in Addis Ababa, January 24, 2007, where he confirmed that Ethiopian troops had started to withdraw from Somalia.
REUTERS/ANDREW HEAVENS
By Guled Mohamed
MOGADISHU, Jan 26 (Reuters) - Mortars hit a Mogadishu residential area and two men were shot dead overnight in the latest violence in a city the Somali government is struggling to pacify after the ouster of hardline Islamists.
In neighbouring Kenya -- where some defeated Islamist fighters have fled -- five young men of Somali origin carrying U.S., French, Tunisian and Syrian passports were arrested at the border, local newspapers reported.
In what looked like a targeted killing in the lawless Somali capital, a man was blindfolded and shot dead late on Thursday in Mogadishu's Tarbuunka Square, witnesses said.
"Three men came out of a vehicle holding a blindfolded man. They shot him then drove away," said a resident who saw the assassination. The other man was shot in Bakara market, residents said. Details of both incidents were murky.
But they added to tensions in a city hit by a string of attacks in recent days aimed at the Somali government and its Ethiopian military allies who helped them topple the Islamists in a two-week offensive over Christmas and New Year.
Two mortars bombs fired by unknown assailants hit the northern Madina neighbourhood overnight.
"One of the mortars hit a house totally destroying a room. ... The family members were lucky to survive. The second mortar fell on a road seriously injuring a pedestrian," said a resident, who gave his name as Abdirahman.
Many suspect hardcore remnants of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) are behind such attacks, but there are many enemies of the government including warlord and clan militias plus criminals.
Many residents and analysts fear a slide back to the anarchy Somalia has suffered for the last 16 years.
AFRICAN MISSION
To prevent that, the African Union (AU) wants to send in nearly 8,000 peacekeepers. Its foreign ministers were discussing that at AU headquarters in Ethiopia on Friday.
With Ethiopia anxious to withdraw its troops, diplomats see an AU mission as the only way to prevent a dangerous vacuum.
But it is not yet clear who will provide all the troops or funds, or how the AU thinks a Somalia mission could be more successful than its shaky force in Sudan's Darfur region.
Uganda, Nigeria and Malawi have so far promised soldiers for Somalia, while Mozambique and others are mulling it. South Africa said on Friday it would not give troops because it was over-stretched but will study other ways to help.
The government of President Abdullahi Yusuf was set up in 2004 in a 14th attempt to restore central rule to Somalia since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre's ouster in 1991.
But having just reached Mogadishu for the first time since then, it now faces a massive challenge to establish its authority and pacify one of the world's most anarchic nations.
Kenyan newspapers said five men arrested at Kiunga on the Indian Ocean coast at the Somali border were caught carrying AK-47 rifles, and were now being interrogated by police.
Neither Kenyan officials nor diplomats in Nairobi could confirm the Standard and Nation reports that the five included U.S., French, Tunisian and Syrian passport-holders.
If confirmed, they would be among various foreign passport-holders of Somali origin believed arrested by both Kenya and Ethiopia in the aftermath of the war.
"It is not surprising that many Somalis have foreign passports. After the Barre regime collapsed, many people (Somalis) were relocated to different countries," said Harun Ndubi, a lawyer for some Islamist suspects in Kenya. (Additional reporting by Sahal Abdulle in Mogadishu, Wangui Kanina in Nairobi and Andrew Quinn in Johannesburg)
AlertNet news is provided by Reuters
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