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Insurgents in Somalia Take Over Police Posts
MOGADISHU, Somalia Ethiopian troops moved out of a border town on Saturday, a day after soldiers began a pullout from the war-ravaged capital of Mogadishu.It remains unclear whether the Ethiopian troops who have been shoring up the countrys weak transitional government will leave the country, or whether some will redeploy in other parts of Somalia. Western diplomats have estimated that Ethiopia has had thousands of troops in the country. The town that the soldiers left on Saturday, Balanbale, is in a region where Islamist militias have been fighting one another. Many here worry that an Ethiopian pullout will leave a power vacuum that Islamist factions will battle one another to fill. Those fears were exacerbated on Friday when an Islamist group took over three empty police stations here. That faction, the Union of Islamic Courts, signed a cease-fire with the government in 2006 and is not allied with the Shabab, one of Somalias most militant Islamic groups. The Shabab controls much of southern Somalia. Sheik Abdirahim Isse Addow, the spokesman for the faction, said his group had decided to move into the police stations to ensure the security of the people. He added, This is not a challenge against other Islamists.
Posted by: Steve White 2009-01-04 |
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