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| Africa Horn |
| Security Forces Launch Mass Search |
| 2007-03-15 |
| Mogadishu, 15 March (AKI) - Several hundred Somali security forces launched Thursday a search operation in the 'KM4 junction' area near Mogadishu's international airport - a part of the country's capital that has witnessed several attacks in the past days and weeks, Somali broadcaster Radio Shabelle reported. More than 4,000 Somali forces who recently ended their two-month military training in the Baledogle military airfield, situated some 100 kilometres south of Mogadishu, were deployed to the volatile city early this week. “They have been searching all kinds of cars passing by the road,” Anab Ahmed, a resident in KM4 neighborhood told Radio Shabelle. At least 16 people died and 30 were wounded when unidentified gunmen attacked the Presidential palace on Tuesday, the day when President Abdulahi Yusuf shifted his temporary base from the town of Baidoa to the capital. Also Mogadishu deputy mayor Ibrahim Shaweye was injured when his vehicle hit a remote-controlled explosive device. Shaweye was flown to Kenya for medical treatment, reports said. Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi has appealed for 42 millions US dollars to help improve security ahead of a Somalia national reconciliation conference due to take place in Mogadishu on 16 April. Gedi has announced that moderate Islamists would be invited to the conference as long as they attend as representitives of their clans and not as delegates of the Union of Islamic Courts which controlled Mogadishu before being driven out from the capital by Ethiopian troops and pro-government forces in late December. |
| Posted by:Steve |