Somalia government vows to fight armed bandits

April 12th, 2009

Somali Information Minister, Farhan Ali Mohamoud affirms that his country has vowed to fight the armed insurgents in Mogadishu.

"We the Somali government and people of Mogadishu will carry attacks against armed groups that fire mortars towards the Somali government and AMISOM (the African Union Mission in Somalia)," Ali Mohamoud told a Press TV correspondent on Saturday.

"The government will not tolerate the insurgents' attacks towards Amisom and the Somali government," the minister added.

Ali Mohamoud also stated that armed insurgents attacked Mogadishu and numerous Somali government and AMISOM establishments, in the early hours of Saturday.

According to the Information Minister, the fighting claimed more than ten lives and left around 50 others seriously injured. The official casualty rate has yet to be released.

Armed bandits raid homes and attack business centers, while at sea, the pirate-infested waters of Somalia, have become a cause for serious international concern.

The new government in Somalia, headed by President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, faces the difficult task of bringing together various feuding factions and armed rebels in the troubled Horn of Africa, wracked by years of violence and internal conflicts.

HRF/SC/MMN source.presstv.ir