Somali officials trade blame over sheikh murders
* Local administrations accuse each other
* Seven preachers were gunned down in mosque
* Militiamen battle in central district
(Adds fighting in Eldher, al Shabaab quotes)
By Abdi Sheikh and Abdi Guled
MOGADISHU, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Officials in lawless northern Somalia traded accusations on Thursday a day after masked gunmen massacred seven Pakistani preachers at a mosque.
The sheikhs were killed in Galkayo, a town on the southern edge of the semi-autonomous northern Puntland region. Violence is increasing in the area, which had been relatively peaceful compared with the rest of the failed Horn of Africa state.
Western security agencies say Somalia has become a haven for Islamist militants plotting attacks in the region and beyond.
The president of Puntland, Abdirahman Mohamed Farole, accused officials in Galmudug, which covers the southern part of the town, of ordering Wednesday's shooting.
"The administration of southern Galkayo was behind the killing of the Pakistani preachers," Farole told reporters. "They are causing chaos in our region."
But a senior Galmudug official, Mohamed Warsame, denied it.
"Puntland is definitely behind the killings," Warsame said.
"When the Pakistanis landed in Puntland their passports were taken by the authorities and they were settled in a mosque ... the Puntland president has imposed a night curfew in the north of Galkayo. His forces must have killed them."
The group of about 25 sheikhs had arrived in Puntland on Tuesday. Local officials said they were mostly from Karachi.
It remained far from clear why they were murdered.
Some residents said they may have been suspected of al Qaeda links, while others rejected that and said the clerics were from South Asia's apolitical Tablighi Jamaat religious movement.
The Pakistani government said Somalia's Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Omar expressed condolences over the "tragic incident" in a telephone call to Pakistani Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Malik Amad Khan.
"He assured ... that the government of Somalia was doing its utmost to apprehend the culprits," the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said in a statement, referring to Omar.
Somalia has been torn by civil war since 1991, and the government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed controls only small pockets of the bomb-shattered capital Mogadishu.
It is facing hardline Islamist rebels in southern and central regions, including the al Shabaab group, which the United States accuses of being al Qaeda's proxy in Somalia.
At least six people were killed in Mogadishu on Wednesday when two supposedly pro-government factions exchanged artillery and anti-aircraft fire across the city's strategic K4 junction.
Violence in Somalia has killed more than 18,000 people since the start of 2007 and driven another 1 million from their homes.
On Thursday, al Shabaab fighters battled gunmen from a more moderate Islamist group, Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca, for control of part of the central district of Eldher, residents said.
And a spokesman for al Shabaab said the port in the southern town of Kismayu had resumed work as usual after the monsoon season. The rebel group runs Kismayu and the surrounding areas.
"The sea port is under the control of the Islamic administration, not (east African regional organisation) IGAD, not America," the spokesman, Sheikh Hassan Yaqub, told Reuters.
"They cannot stop its work."
The port, near the Kenyan border, is an important source of income for the insurgents. (Additional reporting by Ibrahim Mohamed in Hargeisa, Sahra Abdi in Nairobi and Zeeshan Haider in Islamabad; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Alison Williams)
Reuters
* Militiamen battle in central district
(Adds fighting in Eldher, al Shabaab quotes)
By Abdi Sheikh and Abdi Guled
MOGADISHU, Aug 13 (Reuters) - Officials in lawless northern Somalia traded accusations on Thursday a day after masked gunmen massacred seven Pakistani preachers at a mosque.
The sheikhs were killed in Galkayo, a town on the southern edge of the semi-autonomous northern Puntland region. Violence is increasing in the area, which had been relatively peaceful compared with the rest of the failed Horn of Africa state.
Western security agencies say Somalia has become a haven for Islamist militants plotting attacks in the region and beyond.
The president of Puntland, Abdirahman Mohamed Farole, accused officials in Galmudug, which covers the southern part of the town, of ordering Wednesday's shooting.
"The administration of southern Galkayo was behind the killing of the Pakistani preachers," Farole told reporters. "They are causing chaos in our region."
But a senior Galmudug official, Mohamed Warsame, denied it.
"Puntland is definitely behind the killings," Warsame said.
"When the Pakistanis landed in Puntland their passports were taken by the authorities and they were settled in a mosque ... the Puntland president has imposed a night curfew in the north of Galkayo. His forces must have killed them."
The group of about 25 sheikhs had arrived in Puntland on Tuesday. Local officials said they were mostly from Karachi.
It remained far from clear why they were murdered.
Some residents said they may have been suspected of al Qaeda links, while others rejected that and said the clerics were from South Asia's apolitical Tablighi Jamaat religious movement.
The Pakistani government said Somalia's Foreign Minister Mohamed Abdullahi Omar expressed condolences over the "tragic incident" in a telephone call to Pakistani Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Malik Amad Khan.
"He assured ... that the government of Somalia was doing its utmost to apprehend the culprits," the Pakistani Foreign Ministry said in a statement, referring to Omar.
Somalia has been torn by civil war since 1991, and the government of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed controls only small pockets of the bomb-shattered capital Mogadishu.
It is facing hardline Islamist rebels in southern and central regions, including the al Shabaab group, which the United States accuses of being al Qaeda's proxy in Somalia.
At least six people were killed in Mogadishu on Wednesday when two supposedly pro-government factions exchanged artillery and anti-aircraft fire across the city's strategic K4 junction.
Violence in Somalia has killed more than 18,000 people since the start of 2007 and driven another 1 million from their homes.
On Thursday, al Shabaab fighters battled gunmen from a more moderate Islamist group, Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca, for control of part of the central district of Eldher, residents said.
And a spokesman for al Shabaab said the port in the southern town of Kismayu had resumed work as usual after the monsoon season. The rebel group runs Kismayu and the surrounding areas.
"The sea port is under the control of the Islamic administration, not (east African regional organisation) IGAD, not America," the spokesman, Sheikh Hassan Yaqub, told Reuters.
"They cannot stop its work."
The port, near the Kenyan border, is an important source of income for the insurgents. (Additional reporting by Ibrahim Mohamed in Hargeisa, Sahra Abdi in Nairobi and Zeeshan Haider in Islamabad; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Alison Williams)
Reuters
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