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Jugged Somali al-Qaeda now up to 6
Authorities in the breakaway enclave of Somaliland arrested six al Qaeda suspects accused of planning attacks in the lead-up to next week's parliamentary poll, officials said on Friday.Somaliland Interior Minister Ismail Osman Aden said heavy machine guns, two boxes of anti-tank mines and a large cache of ammunition were retrieved in the operation late on Thursday. "The terrorists we have arrested are from the al Qaeda cell in Mogadishu. They include a terrorist on the list of internationally wanted terrorists," he told Reuters, declining to identify the suspects. Some of the suspects included locals from the former British protectorate that broke away from Somalia in 1991, he added. Somaliland, a relatively stable enclave which is not recognised internationally, is preparing to hold its second multiparty elections next week. "These terrorists were planning to kill senior government officials and some prominent foreigners and destroy buildings to create chaos in this election week or on the voting day," Osman said. Four suspects were arrested in a raid on a house in the main city of Hargeisa. The other two were detained separately. A doctor in the main hospital in Hargeisa said three policemen were wounded in the operation. Posted by: Dan Darling 2005-09-24 |
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