http://www.hiiraan.com/news/2006/dec/wa ... 31-497.htm
Somalia: Ethiopian soldiers might be target of explosion in Mogadishu
Dec 31, 2006, 02:04
MOGADISHU, Somalia Dec 31 (Garowe Online) - Only two days after Somali and allied Ethiopian troops marched into Mogadishu, there are emerging reports that an explosion Saturday night mightÂ’ve targeted nearby Ethiopian soldiers.
The explosion occurred around 9 p.m. local time on Saturday near Hotel Ramadan in MogadishuÂ’s Yaaqshiid district. At least 2 people, neither of which was a soldier, were confirmed dead at the scene with one other person critically wounded.
Witnesses told Garowe Online that the explosion was intended for Somali and Ethiopian military officers who live in Hotel Ramadan, the former headquarters of the recently-routed Islamic Courts movement.
Security was tightened around Hotel Ramadan and locals were ordered not to carry weapons in the area.
While thousands of Islamist militiamen fled to the southern port of Kismayo, others changed clothes and melted back into the Mogadishu population.
There are worries that an insurgency might begin in Mogadishu to resist the presence of Ethiopian troops.
Reuters
"Two days after a joint Ethiopian-government force chased the Islamists out of Somalia's capital, a missile apparently aimed at one of their positions rocked a Mogadishu neighborhood overnight as it flew into a family home.
"We heard a big bang behind the Ramadan hotel," a Mogadishu resident, who asked not to be named, said of the attack in a northern district that had housed the Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC) headquarters since it took the capital in June.
"When I rushed there, I heard people screaming and I was told a woman is dead and a man and their daughter wounded."
The attack, in a city which has become a byword for violence in nearly two decades of conflict and anarchy, seemed to have been targeted at Ethiopian military forces, heightening fears the Islamists may counter-attack with guerrilla strikes."
--THERE ARE ALSO REPORTING MASKED MEN WITH AKs RUNNING THE STREETS
GAME IS ON!
