Somalia's internal affairs and foreign affairs ministers have issued contradicting statements regarding the brutal massacre of 11 people at a Mogadishu mosque over the weekend.Interior Minister Muse Nur Amin told reporters on Tuesday that insurgents first attacked Ethiopian and Somali troops to trigger the weekend's deadly violence, which killed upwards of 80 people according to a local human rights organization. "I personally do not believe that someone praying at a mosque was pulled out and killed, but I want to make clear that the [Transitional] Federal Government is investigating," the Interior Minister said in Mogadishu. He categorically dismissed the idea that, upon investigation, only the Federal Government and its Ethiopian military allies will take blame for the massacre at al Hidaya Mosque, in northern Mogadishu.
But Somalia's foreign affairs minister, Mr. Ali "Jangeli" Ahmed, completely denied reports of the mosque massacre, arguing that "no religious men were killed."
"The troops have the right to arrest a criminal who runs into a mosque," said Foreign Minister Jangeli, who is currently in Washington, D.C., as part of President Abdullahi Yusuf's delegation.
Somalia's armed opposition groups have condemned the al Hidaya Mosque killings, where a well-known Imam [prayer leader] was shot to death by soldiers in front of witnesses. Mohamud Ibrahim Suley, spokesman for the Islamic Courts movement, said the al Hidaya Mosque killings have placed the ongoing reconciliation process "in the dark."
Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, chairman of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia (ARS), reportedly left Djibouti and returned to his exile home in Asmara, Eritrea, following the weekend violence in Mogadishu. Djibouti is the location where Somali government officials and ARS opposition figures planned to convene on May 10 to begin peace talks.
Local sources said more than 40 Islamic students were arrested by the Ethiopian soldiers who stormed the mosque and are blamed for the brutal slaying of 11 people inside, including Sheikh Said Yahya, the Imam of al Hidaya Mosque. As of Tuesday afternoon, most of the students have not been released.