A landmine blast in the Somali capital Mogadishu killed eight people, and mortar rounds fired by insurgents at the city airport as the president returned killed six, eyewitnesses and medics said on Sunday. Al Shabaab Islamist fighters fired the mortar rounds shortly after President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed and the parliament speaker landed late on Saturday. Government troops and African Union (AU) peacekeepers responded by shelling rebel strongholds. "All the mortar rounds missed the airport but landed in civilian areas," Ali Muse, coordinator of ambulance services, told Reuters. He said five of the six people killed died in the bustling Bakara market from where al Shabaab often launches its attacks. Four of them were women. On Tuesday, the United Nations urged Somali security forces, AU troops and Islamist militants not to indiscriminately shell densely populated areas, saying this was a blatant violation of the laws of war.
"They have massacred our people, they don't care for our people, our flag and sovereignty," wept Fadumo Abdi, whose son was killed in the blast.
| Poor Faumo Abdi simply doesn't understand. If his/her son was a pious Muslim, the mortar round sent him to paradise as a shahid, with all that entails. If he wasn't, then better he is dead than continuing a life of impiety. Thus do we see the tender care al Shabab takes of the souls of their fellow Somalis, regardless of creed or tribe. |