SOMALILAND: Bomb blast targets police station in Las Anod
Posted: Sun Apr 10, 2011 7:44 pm
BURAO — At least two people including a police officer were hurt in the town of Las Anod when unknown assailants hurled a powerful hand grenade in a police station in the south, news reports said.
Eyewitnesses in the town said masked men targeted the Ali Ahmed Shire police station on early hours of Saturday night. The injured said to be a police officer and a prisoner were rushed to near by hospital and later transferred to Burao. The blast also damaged the police station and was felt around the city.
Col. Elmi Roble Furre, the Chief Commissioner, told media in Hargeisa a full investigation was underway while independent reports in Las Anod said a number of suspects have been taken into custody.
Suleiman Ahmed: terrorist suspect and leader of the armed SSC militant
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but in recent months an insurgent group believed to have ties with Somalia’s al-Shabab has launched a violent campaign against Somaliland officials and security forces. The police suspects the SSC group whose leader, Suleiman Ahmed, is currently being investigated for federal terrorism in the U.S., was behind the attack. The U.S. government is monitoring the group’s movement and financial activities (see Local Somali draws FBI scrutiny). More than three Somaliland officials were gunned down in Las Anod, the provicial capital of Sool, in the past three months.
The attack comes days after more than 60 militant fighters from the insurgents hand themselves to government forces in the near by region of Buhodle.
The government insists it is willing to open a dialogue with elders and other stakeholders but Suleiman Ahmed, al-Shabab and the government of Eritrea were trying to destabilise the region. Security forces recovered huge cache of arms and ammunitions including 37 pistols hidden in a boat last month in the remote northern port-town of Laanta Awl, near the ancient city of Zeila. Police officials said the arms were being smuggled from Eritrea and they were for violent groups to destabilise the region. Similarly, the government handed two Eritrean nationals accused of aiding and having ties with extremist groups over to Ethiopia. They were arrested at Egal International airport in Hargeisa last Friday.
Ethiopia is trying to topple the Asmara regime and has recently invited Eritrean armed groups to its soil to remove President Isaias Afwerki following high tensions between the two rivals. The Meles government accuses Eritrea of trying to destabilise Ethiopia and the region by backing and arming militants and extremists. “We have to facilitate ways for Eritrean people to remove their dictatorial regime,” Meles told journalists on Tuesday according to AFP. After receiving intelligence reports, the Ethiopian federal forces arrested more than 120 fighters said to belong to the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), in whats described as the biggest crackdown on the group in recent times. According to state media they will be charged with terrorism and for aiding the outlawed OLF rebel group.
Somalilandpress | 9 April 2011
Eyewitnesses in the town said masked men targeted the Ali Ahmed Shire police station on early hours of Saturday night. The injured said to be a police officer and a prisoner were rushed to near by hospital and later transferred to Burao. The blast also damaged the police station and was felt around the city.
Col. Elmi Roble Furre, the Chief Commissioner, told media in Hargeisa a full investigation was underway while independent reports in Las Anod said a number of suspects have been taken into custody.
Suleiman Ahmed: terrorist suspect and leader of the armed SSC militant
No group has claimed responsibility for the attack but in recent months an insurgent group believed to have ties with Somalia’s al-Shabab has launched a violent campaign against Somaliland officials and security forces. The police suspects the SSC group whose leader, Suleiman Ahmed, is currently being investigated for federal terrorism in the U.S., was behind the attack. The U.S. government is monitoring the group’s movement and financial activities (see Local Somali draws FBI scrutiny). More than three Somaliland officials were gunned down in Las Anod, the provicial capital of Sool, in the past three months.
The attack comes days after more than 60 militant fighters from the insurgents hand themselves to government forces in the near by region of Buhodle.
The government insists it is willing to open a dialogue with elders and other stakeholders but Suleiman Ahmed, al-Shabab and the government of Eritrea were trying to destabilise the region. Security forces recovered huge cache of arms and ammunitions including 37 pistols hidden in a boat last month in the remote northern port-town of Laanta Awl, near the ancient city of Zeila. Police officials said the arms were being smuggled from Eritrea and they were for violent groups to destabilise the region. Similarly, the government handed two Eritrean nationals accused of aiding and having ties with extremist groups over to Ethiopia. They were arrested at Egal International airport in Hargeisa last Friday.
Ethiopia is trying to topple the Asmara regime and has recently invited Eritrean armed groups to its soil to remove President Isaias Afwerki following high tensions between the two rivals. The Meles government accuses Eritrea of trying to destabilise Ethiopia and the region by backing and arming militants and extremists. “We have to facilitate ways for Eritrean people to remove their dictatorial regime,” Meles told journalists on Tuesday according to AFP. After receiving intelligence reports, the Ethiopian federal forces arrested more than 120 fighters said to belong to the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), in whats described as the biggest crackdown on the group in recent times. According to state media they will be charged with terrorism and for aiding the outlawed OLF rebel group.
Somalilandpress | 9 April 2011
