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Somali minister unscathed in ambush
[Shabelle] Abdikarin Hussein Guled, Somalia’s interior minister has escaped unscathed from an ambush by Al-Shabaab
... Somalia's version of the Taliban, functioning as an arm of al-Qaeda...
fighters during a visit to the Al-Qaeda-linked group’s former stronghold of Marko, 110 Km (68 miles) south of Mogadishu, reports said.

Ahmed was making a rare trip out of Mogadishu on Monday when the convoy was attacked by Al shabab in the outskirts of Shalanbod town, the Afgoye corridor, a key road about 90km north of the capital.

Nearly 10 Somali soldiers were killed in the attack but Mr.Guled was able to continue his trip, a Somali security official said.

A roadside kaboom destroyed one of vehicles carrying the internal affairs minister sped off as soon as the face-to-face fighting began.

The minister was traveling from Marko back to Mogadishu, the Somali capital on Monday. The armoured convoy was guarded by African Union
...a union consisting of 53 African states, most run by dictators of one flavor or another. The only all-African state not in the AU is Morocco. Established in 2002, the AU is the successor to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), which was even less successful...
troops and Somali government soldiers, who seized Marko, the port city in southern Somalia last year without a battle with Al shabab.
Posted by: Fred 2012-12-04
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=357330