Six killed as Somali parliament tackles government row

MOGADISHU (AFP) — Six people, including four soldiers, were killed in the Somali capital as parliament moved to tackle a political row that has split the government, officials and witnesses said Monday.
Fighting erupted late Sunday when around 50 insurgents attacked government forces in northern Mogadishu with heavy weaponry, sparking deadly artillery duels, according to the witnesses.

New fighting was reported in southern Mogadishu late Monday, but casualties could not be immediately established.

"We have lost three government soldiers including Nur Warsame Hirey, the commander of the unit that was attacked last night near Barakat Cemetery," a military commander told AFP on condition of anonymity.

The body of a fourth soldier was found near the scene of the fighting early Monday, said witness Husein Mohamed Osman.

Gunmen also killed two local government officials in northern Mogadishu, the latest in a series of attacks that have convulsed the seaside capital, said Abdukadir Nur Barre, a local grocer who witnessed the incident.

As the violence raged, parliament speaker Aden Mohamed Nur said President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi would attend a Tuesday parliamentary session to try to end a damaging dispute.

The row was touched off Friday when Somali attorney general Abdullahi Dahir -- close to the president -- was sacked by the cabinet for ordering the arrest of the supreme court's chairman and one of its judges.

Gedi's government deemed the arrests illegal but Dahir -- who has refused to leave his post -- said supreme court chief Yusuf Ali Haru and judge Mohamed Nur should face corruption charges. An ugly standoff ensued.

"They have agreed to abide by our (parliament) decision and the disagreement will be resolved accordingly," Nur said of the clan-based assembly is based in the southern town of Baidoa.
The parliament spokesman also downplayed the row in a government already weakened by infighting, resignations and lacking popular support.

"There is no deep row between the top government officials, but only a slight disagreement," Nur told reporters.

Also Monday, the newly formed Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS) named former powerful warlord Sheikh Yusuf Mohammed Siad to lead the war against Ethiopian forces deployed in Mogadishu.

Siad, ex-defence chief in the now-defunct Islamic Courts Union, "is in Mogadishu now with the fighting forces leading the resistance," said Zakariya Mahamud Abdi, a top official in the umbrella group of all forces against the government.

Siad was formerly a warlord in charge of Somalia's Middle Shabelle region.

Since the Islamist movement was defeated in January and its leaders routed out of the country, its remnants have carried out near-daily guerrilla attacks mainly in the capital, mainly targeting government officials and Ethiopian troops.

The powerful Ethiopia's army came to the rescue of the government last year and in April wrested final control of Mogadishu from an Islamist militia that briefly controlled large parts of the country.

Somalia has lacked an effective government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre touched off a deadly clan-based power struggle that has defied numerous efforts to restore stability.

Violence has raged despite a recent government-sponsored reconciliation conference, which was boycotted by Islamist-led Somali opposition groups, and ended with nothing to speak of.