Somaliland Interior Minister Irro admits......

Interior Minister Irro admits that they have released men accused of smuggling anti-aircraft guns into Somaliland

Hargeisa (Observer)- Our sister newspaper Waaheen exposed two weeks ago that Government of Somaliland did not capture 10 shoulder-fired anti-aircraft guns smuggled into Somaliland as officials claimed. Government sources including the Minister of Interior had earlier claimed that they have arrested two men in possession of the illegal anti-aircraft guns. But Waaheen has subsequently learned that only one of the 10 guns was in the hands of the Somaliland government and that the other 9 may have already been transported to Ethiopia by Ethiopian security personnel.


We have further learned that the weapons were brought into Somaliland by a well-connected dealer from southern Somalia and their original destination may have been Ethiopia anyway, but that the Somaliland government once the weapons transit was discovered was adamant to have all the weapons turned over to them.
In an interview given to Voice America, the Minister of Interior said that after some investigation two men accused of smuggling the weapons were released for lack of evidence. Sources told Waaheen that both men left Somaliland last Thursday and that the single weapon captured by Somaliland police has also been turned over to Ethiopian security personnel. Somaliland and Ethiopia have signed cross-border security agreements, but it is not clear that this incident involved any of the provisions of those arrangements.


The Minister also denied reports that his government was holding 10 young men of Somali origin but with US citizenship. Newspapers in Somaliland have reported last month these men were arrested after arriving at Egal International Airport from Mogadishu. News of the detention raised fears that young Somali men recruited from the US were bent on carrying out further terrorist attacks in Somaliland. At least one Somali-born US citizen from the State of Minnesota is believed to have been involved in the 29 October terrorist attacks in Somaliland’s capital Hargeisa. News accounts from the US suggest that as many as two dozen young Somali men have been recruited by al-Shabab, a radical group in Somalia.


source:Waheen.com
http://www.waaheen.com/index.php?action=view&id=285&module=newsmodule&src=%40random4943e3b08690d


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