| Africa Horn | |
| At least 140 killed in Mogadishu battle | |
| 2006-07-12 | |
Moallim said casualties from the two days of fighting, which started on Sunday and ended late on Monday when militia loyal to warlord Abdi Awale Qaybdiid began surrendering, would probably rise as many had not yet been taken to hospital. The fighting pitted Islamist militias who control most of Mogadishu against gunmen backing Qaybdiid, a member of a routed alliance of | |
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| Africa Horn |
| Somali Islamist chief says will find cameraman's killer |
| 2006-06-24 |
 Somalia's newly powerful Islamists expressed their condolences on Saturday to the family of a Swedish cameraman shot dead during a rally in Mogadishu and said they made three more arrests in their hunt for the killer. Islamic Courts Union (ICU) Chairman Sheikh Sharif Ahmed blamed the attack on those who wanted to destabilize Mogadishu, weeks after its new Islamist rulers said they had pacified one of the world's most lawless cities after 15 years of anarchy.Martin Adler was shot dead at the front of a crowd of thousands while filming a protest led by the ICU on Friday. "The Islamic courts are very sorry for the killing and we send our condolences to the family and colleagues," Ahmed told a news conference, adding that they would find those responsible. Nairobi-based ICU spokesman Abdurahman Ali Osman said three more people had been arrested in connection with the shooting and a woman arrested on Friday was still being questioned. Osman said on Friday the ICU blamed the shooting on followers of a lesser-known warlord, Abdi Awale Qaybdiid, who stayed in Mogadishu despite the Islamists' takeover. He later said this was not certain but added that Qaybdiid had been told to cooperate or would be "attacked". |
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| Europe | |||
| Sweden holds Somali accused of war crimes | |||
| 2005-10-17 | |||
| STOCKHOLM, Sweden (Reuters) -- A visiting Somali has been arrested in Sweden after exiles denounced him as a war criminal, police said Monday. Swedish authorities did not name the 57-year-old man, who was held in the university town Lund late Sunday and taken to the city of Gothenburg for questioning, they said. But a Somali legislator identified him as Abdi Awale Qaybdiid, an ex-police officer associated in the past with some warlords and now an aide to the Somali parliament's speaker. A former colleague of Qaybdiid, who also asked not to be named, said he was accused of ordering a mortar attack that killed 10 people in a Mogadishu market in 1996. "The guy came here for a conference and some other Somalis in Sweden went to the police in Gothenburg and told them about him and brought a video tape," Hans Olvebro, head of the Swedish national police's war crimes unit, told Reuters. Sweden's Foreign Ministry said the man was part of a six-person Somali delegation led by parliament speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan.
Qaybdiid was a police officer under Barre. After 1991, he worked for warlords including Mohammed Farah Aideed, whose 1993 clash with U.S. troops was made into the film "Black Hawk Down". Qaybdiid's ex-colleague, talking to Reuters in Nairobi, said he was remembered for the 1996 attack on Bakara market, which killed some 10 people, while working for warlord Osman Ali Atto. The legislator close to Hassan, also speaking in Nairobi, said the arrest was inspired by supporters of the opposing government faction, based in Jowhar outside Mogadishu. "We appeal for the immediate release of Abdi Qaybdiid," he added. The legislator added that Hassan's delegation had also been troubled on a recent trip to the United States where some people called police to denounce them as "terrorists".
Some human rights groups estimate 500,000 Somalis have been killed since Barre's toppling plunged the nation of 10 million people into anarchy. The United States and United Nations intervened in 1992-1993 but withdrew by early 1995. Sweden is involved in the Somali peace process. The weekend conference about "Good Governance and Rule of Law" in the Horn of Africa was supported by local authorities in southern Sweden and the Swedish foreign development agency.
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