Oromia: Somali Islamist Fighters Attack Presidential Palace; One Killed

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Somali Islamist Fighters Attack Presidential Palace; One Killed

By Hamsa Omar

July 8 (Bloomberg) -- Islamist fighters attacked Somalia's presidential palace and an airport in the southern town of Baidoa with mortars, killing a government soldier and wounding six others.

The attack was carried out last night by al-Shabaab, the youth militia of the Islamic Courts Union, Sheikh Mukhtar Robow, a spokesman for the militia, told reporters today in a teleconference in the capital, Mogadishu.

It's the first time Baidoa, the seat of Somalia's parliament situated 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of the capital, has been attacked since January 2007. That month, Islamist fighters were ousted from southern and central parts of the country by United Nations-backed Transitional Federal Government and U.S.-supported Ethiopian troops.

``Baidoa is the last entrenchment that the Ethiopians and this puppet government has and I call on all our Mujahedeen to put pressure on Baidoa in order to eradicate them,'' Robow said.

Seven government soldiers were admitted to Baidoa's hospital after the attack, Fadumo Hussein, a nurse, said in a telephone interview from the city.

``All have shrapnel wounds,'' she said, adding that one of the soldiers later died.

The attack comes after the government and the Alliance for the Reliberation of Somalia, an opposition group, agreed to a cease-fire last month. The Islamic Courts Union has rejected the accord, which calls for Ethiopian troops to withdraw from the country within four months and be replaced by UN peacekeepers.

``There is no cease-fire agreement until Ethiopians pull out of our country,'' Robow said.

Somalia hasn't had a functioning central administration since the 1991 removal of former dictator Mohammed Siad Barre.

To contact the reporter on this story: Hamsa Omar in Mogadishu via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.