By MOHAMED IBRAHIM and JEFFREY GETTLEMAN
Published: September 17, 2009
MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somali insurgents killed the second in command of the African Union peacekeeping force Thursday in a brazen, well-planned suicide bombing that involved stolen United Nations vehicles, African Union and Somali officials said.
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A Somali woman is rushed into a local hospital after several mortar rounds hit the African Union in Mogadishu on Thursday.
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Times Topics: Al-ShababThe insurgents timed their attack to hit a meeting of top Somali and African Union officials, suggesting that the insurgents had deeply infiltrated Somali security forces. Several other high-ranking commanders were also wounded in the assault.
Somalia’s weak but internationally-recognized transitional government is facing intense resistance from insurgent groups linked to Al Qaeda. American officials, who have been helping the government, said the suicide bombing might have been revenge for an American commando strike earlier this week on Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, an Al Qaeda terrorist who was training Somali militants.
"This attack was planned long ago,” said an American adviser who was not authorized to speak to journalists and therefore asked to remain anonymous. But, he added, ``the killing of Nabhan sped up the attack."
Witnesses said fighters from the Shabab, Islamist extremists with growing ties to Al Qaeda, were allowed inside the base because they were driving two white trucks with “U.N.” on the doors. The trucks were packed with explosives, and the drivers detonated them around 11:30 a.m., witnesses said. Local radio stations also reported that the Shabab had claimed responsibility for the attack.
Heavy machine-gun fire rattled for hours afterward, making it difficult to gain clear information about casualties. Some witnesses said around 15 people were killed. Among the dead was the Burundian deputy commander of the African Union peacekeeping force, Brig. Gen. Juvenal Niyoyunguruza, officials said.
Several Somalis said the United Nations trucks had been stolen in Baidoa, a central Somalia town that used to have a large United Nations staff and is now firmly under Shabab control.
A spokesman for the Shabab, Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, told Reuters that the attacks were, in fact, to avenge the killing of a leading militant recruiter in southern Somalia on Monday.
There are around 5,000 African Union troops in Somalia protecting the transitional government. Insurgents have attacking the peacekeepers relentlessly, often with suicide bombs. Somalia has not had effective central government since 1991, when the former government was toppled by clan militias that later turned on each other.
Earlier on Thursday, the Shabab distributed a statement to journalists setting conditions on the release of a French security adviser who was kidnapped in July. The militants demanded that the French government stop supporting the transitional federal government. They also sought the withdrawal of African Union peacekeepers, the French antipiracy warships patrolling Somalia’s waters and the French security companies operating in Somalia. The statement also called for the release of Shabab prisoners held in various prisons.
A spokesman for the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Bernard Valéro, questioned the authenticity of the statement and said France stood behind current peacekeeping operations.
The French captive is one of two security advisers who were kidnapped at a hotel in Mogadishu in July. The other captive, Marc Aubrière, held by the militia Hizb-ul-Islam, escaped three weeks ago.
Mohamed Ibrahim reported from Mogadishu, and Jeffrey Gettleman from Lamu, Kenya.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/18/world ... .html?_r=1
