| Somalia: Hotels of the envoys attacked overnight as the N.R.C. is close |
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Aweys Osman Yusuf Mogadishu 14, July.07 - Somalia's Islamic rebels launched attacks on the venue where the country's national reconciliation congress would take place on Sunday. Witnesses said two hotels checked in by some of the representatives of the clans were attacked. "The attackers used rocket propelled grenades and automatic gunfire, riddling the hotels with bullets," said Saed Hamoud, a resident in north of the capital, Mogadishu. He said Gargurt was one of the hotels the insurgent attacked last night around 8: 30 p.m. local time. An Ethiopian military base in north of the capital was also attacked last night. Resident said they have been awake overnight as the troops were firing shots until after midnight. On Saturday, the largest number of Ethiopian and Somali troops has positioned themselves at the streets of Mogadishu, stopping and searching cars. Mogadishu's biggest open-air market, Bakara, was occupied by fresh Somali troops with business activities going on after the market was out of operation for nearly a week. Abdalla Ahmed, a cosmetics salesman, told Shabelle that he opened his shop on Saturday morning. "My shop was closed for five days because of insecurity and fear of looting but this morning I decided to open it and do my business as usual," he said, indicating that no trouble happened inside the market today. The government said the conference would take place in Mogadishu tomorrow despite the continuing the violence in the volatile city. Hundreds of families could be seen Saturday fleeing the neighborhoods closer to the site of the conference to areas outside the capital. Some of them interviewed by Shabelle said they heard rumors that insurgents would launch their last fighting against the Ethiopian troops and the Somali transitional government.
"Families living in
my neighborhood fled
this morning because
they said they were
sure that series of
bombings would
happen when the
conference begins
and so we are
traveling to Balet
Weyn (central
province of
Somalia). We can not
live under constant
fear of death," said
Abdiyo Haji, a
mother of seven,
fleeing Ali Kamin
neighborhood. He condemned the recent violent incidents and threats intended to thwart the Congress, and called on opposition groups - both within and outside Somalia - to renounce violence and participate in the Congress to further the cause of reconciliation. Somalia has had no effective central government since 1991 when warlords toppled former president Mohammed Siad Barre |
