October 17, 2006, 15 hours, 58 minutes and 31 seconds ago.
By (AND) - www.andnetwork.com
HARGEISA, SomaliaÂ’s new Islamist rulers decided to send suicide bombers to Somaliland in an attempt to assassinate what they called the apostate leadership of the breakaway region.
In a decision signed by Sheikh Dahir Aways, the most radical leader of the Islamists, and a copy of which has been received by Awdalnews Network, the Shura Council of the UIC decided to send 30 young assassins to Hargeisa as suicide bombers to kill what they called the Jewish and American collaborators.
“The Shura Council of the Perseverance Alliance has decided to send 30 young martyrs to carry out explosions and killing of the Jewish and American collaborators in the northern regions,” it said.
The list of targeted personalities include Somaliland President Dahir Riyale Kahin, Foreign Minister Abdillahi Mohammed Duale, Finance Minister Hussein Ali Duale, Defence Minister Adan Waqaf, Aviation and Transport Minister Ali Mohammed Waran Adde, Minister of Information Ahmed Dahir Elmi and other seven senior officials.
Written in Arabic and dated on the 6th Ramadan 1427 of the Hirjri calender (28 Sept. 2006), the decision blasts the Somaliland leadership for being apostates who reneged from Islam and opted to work with Jews and Americans at the expense of their nation and religion.
The Council said the decision was made “After the Follow Up Committee of the Perseverance Alliance submitted reports related to the circumstances in which religious scholars live in the northern regions (Somaliland), and after the reports mentioned the personalities that carried out the torture against Islamic clerics and after the Council watched a video footage of the torture of Sheikh Mohammed Ismail.”
Other measures recommended by the decision include forming a committee tasked to circulate the alleged torture video footage and stir protest marches and dissent in the Somaliland towns of Buroa, Las Anod, Erigavo and Buhodle.
The Council also decided to train 3000 young mujahids hailing from the Northern regions (Somaliland) but currently living in the southern towns of Mogadishu, Kismayo and Guri Eel and later dispatch them to Somaliland.
The Islamist media has been repeatedly showing the alleged torture video of Sheikh Mohammed Ismail. Somaliland described the torture video as a fabrication.
In an interview with Awdalnews early October, Somaliland President Dahir Riyale Kahin said that the footage seemed to be a fabrication, underlining that Somaliland was investigating the case and would present the outcome to the public.
“We don’t use torture as an investigative method and we don’t torture anyone in our prisons. It is against our values and our laws,” he added, pointing out that the whole episode could be a ruse by some people trying to use the name of Islam for their own agenda.
Kahin, however, confirmed that the man was suspected of being behind the explosives found in Hargeisa during the parliamentary elections in September 2005.
The UIC, however, seems to have made some inroads in Somaliland recently, particularly with the departure of Sheikh Ali Warsame, a former Al Ittihad leader, and brother-in-law of Aweys himself, to Mogadishu.
Meanwhile, a number of demonstrations against the alleged torture video took place in major Somaliland towns such as Hargeisa, Buroa and Erigavo. A number of Somaliland clerics have also issued statements, calling for the Somaliland government to apply Islamic Sharia without any delay.
Also a mob led by extremist clerics burned three issues of Haatuf newspaper, SomalilandÂ’s leading paper, on Friday 13th Oct. 2006, in the town of Buroa, for being critical of the UIC. Somaliland Times, the English sister of Haatuf, said the newspaper burners were led by Mubarak Ahmed Diriye who has been suspected of having ties to al-Shabaab wing of MogadishuÂ’s Islamic Courts, whose overall leader is Adan Hashi Ayro, an Afghan trained Jihadist.
Somaliland, a former British colony that has unilaterally annulled its union with the rest of Somalia after the collapse of the Siyad regime in 1991, has since then enjoyed a high degree of peace and stability. It also established a robust democratic system and held internationally observed presidential and parliamentary elections.
Scoffing at SomalilandÂ’s peace and stability, Aweys recently accused the Somaliland people of worshipping an idol called Peace instead of Allah.
“The Somaliland people forgot to worship Allah and instead worship an idol called Peace,” he said in a statement to the media.
Aweys, considered to be the leader of the hardliner faction of the UIC, was a former military colonel in the Somali army and the commander of the military wing of the Al Ittihad Al Islami after the collapse of the central government. He is on WashingtonÂ’s wanted list for having links with Al Qaeda. One of his loyal underlings Ahmed Hashi Ayro is suspected of being behind the assassination of foreign humanitarian workers in Somaliland in late 2003.
