Four Killed As Somali Faction Tries To Capture Parliament Speaker
MOGADISHU (AFP) - A Somali armed faction tried Saturday to capture the transitional parliament's speaker, Abdallah Derrow Issak, starting clashes which left at least four people dead and seven injured, the faction stated.
Rahanwein Resistance Army (RRA) deputy commander Mohamed Ibrahim Habsde said from Baidoa in southern central Somalia that RRA forces battled the militia protecting a visiting team from Mogadishu.
"The RRA has offered a price of $3,000 for the capture of Issak, who is on the run," said Habsde, a leader of one of the armed clan-based groups in Somalia opposed to the new central administration set up last year.
Habsde said the RRA had captured transitional education minister Mohamed Aden Kilai and seized four battlewagons and another vehicle carrying communications equipment.
The RRA claims could not be immediately verified independently.
Issak, escorted by 20 armed wagons and 150 gunmen, left the capital early on Friday for a tour of the volatile Bakol and Bay region of south central Somalia.
Tension had been high for a week at the RRA headquarters in Baidoa, after Shatigudud reportedly removed Issak's supporters from his administration.
All communication links between Baidoa and other parts of Somalia were severed.
Supporters of Issak have also been chased away from Baidoa.
Issak was the secretary general of RRA, but fell out with Shatigudud because of his decision to support the transitional government headed by President Abdulkassim Salat Hassan.
Shatigudud initially backed Salat's administration, but later withdrew his support, saying some parts of Somalia were not represented at a reconciliation conference in Djibouti, where politicians elected the president last August 25th.
The conference, held under the auspices of Djibouti President Ismael Omar Guelleh, was attended by thousands of Somali delegates but spurned by most of the warlords who have carved the country up in the past decade.
Somalia has lacked an effective central government since the fall of president Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991. Most infrastructure collapsed as various clan-based warlords battled for control of territory and resources.
