MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Armed Islamic militants seized a central Somali town, burned down the governor's house and killed two British and two Kenyan teachers before withdrawing, witnesses and police said Monday.
The seizure of Belet Weyne was one of several attacks in Somalia Sunday that resulted in at least nine deaths as insurgents continued to battle the weak U.N.-backed government and its Ethiopian allies for control of the country.
The fighters arrived in the town late Sunday, took up strategic positions, freed prisoners and burned the governor's house, resident Abdi-qani Hashi said.
Belet Weyne police chief Abdi Aden Adow said the insurgents met no resistance because government forces retreated to the Somali-Ethiopian border when they heard the militants were headed to town.
Resident Ayanle Husein Abdi said one of the four teachers killed ran the Hakab Private English School. Mohamed Abdulle, who lives next to the school, said he heard the gunshots that killed the teachers during the attack but was "too shocked and scared to move."
Gate guard Mohamed Cadde said all four teachers had been shot in the head.
A 32-year-old woman and a 70-year-old man who were killed had British passports and were of Somali origin, the police chief said. The two others were Kenyan, he said.
"(My uncle) came to the region to help its people learn something and now he is dead for no reason," said Abdul-qadir Anshur Ali, the nephew of the dead British man and a teacher at the school.
The deceased man was married to a British woman and had two sons in Birmingham, he added.
Insurgents have taken nearly a dozen towns in brief attacks in the past few months, but usually withdraw after a few hours.
Islamic militants have been fighting the government and its Ethiopian allies for control since their combined forces pushed the Islamists from the capital in December 2006.
The Islamists regrouped in Eritrea, Ethiopia's archenemy, and vowed to fight an Iraq-style insurgency. Somalia is riven between clans, awash with weapons and has not had a functioning government since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other.
In the southern town of Merka, cinema owner Abdi-Alalah said four people were killed and 16 wounded late Sunday when gunmen threw a grenade into a building where hundreds of young people were watching a Hollywood movie. One of the wounded died later in hospital, he said.
In the capital, Mogadishu, insurgents attacked a base of peacekeepers from Burundi overnight, the peacekeepers' spokesman, Capt. Clement Cimana, said. None of them was injured, Cimana said.
Associated Press Writer Mohamed Sheik Nor contributed to this report. |