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News – Africa: Somali blasts: cleric arrested

WARNING: This is Version 1 of my old archive, so Photos will NOT work and many links will NOT work. But you can find articles by searching on the Titles. There is a lot of information in this archive. Use the SEARCH BAR at the top right. Prior to December 2012; I was a pro-Christian type of Conservative. I was unaware of the mass of Jewish lies in history, especially the lies regarding WW2 and Hitler. So in here you will find pro-Jewish and pro-Israel material. I was definitely WRONG about the Boeremag and Janusz Walus. They were for real.

Original Post Date: 2008-10-31 Time: 05:00:16  Posted By: Jan

By Salad Duhul

Mogadishu, Somalia – Somali authorities have arrested an Islamic cleric suspected of involvement in a wave of suicide attacks that killed more than 20 people, an official said on Thursday.

Cleric Sheik Mohamed Ismail was arrested on Wednesday in connection with five apparently co-ordinated attacks on Wednesday in the breakaway republic of Somaliland and in Somalia’s Puntland region, said Muse Gelle Yusuf, a governor in Puntland, .

He said several other people were being sought in connection with the attacks in the two areas, which have largely been spared the deadly violence of the country’s south.

No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blasts, but the US says they had the signature of al-Qaeda.

The attacks targeted a UN compound, the Ethiopian consulate and the presidential palace in Somaliland’s capital, Hargeisa. Two intelligence facilities were hit in Puntland.

Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991, when clan warlords ousted longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other.

The current government was formed in 2004 with the help of the United Nations, but has failed to protect citizens from violence or the country’s poverty.

Islamic militants have waged an insurgency against Somali government troops and their Ethiopian allies for almost two years.

The near-daily mortar attacks and gunbattles have killed thousands of Somali civilians in the capital, deaths that all sides blame on each other.

Somalia’s north has tried to sever ties with the chaotic south, which includes the beleaguered capital, Mogadishu.

Puntland has a semi-autonomous administration, and Somaliland has long sought international recognition as being its own nation, separate from Somalia. – Sapa-AP

Source: http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?art_id=nw20081030144103285C171345