Reuters
December 8, 2009
Abdi Sheikh
MOGADISHU – Residents of a Mogadishu suburb clashed with Hizbul Islam rebels on Tuesday after the insurgents arrested a headmaster who raised a Somali flag over his school.
Witnesses said some residents grabbed weapons and fired at the Hizbul gunmen after a protest against the group turned violent in Elasha, 15 km (9 miles) southwest of the capital. Residents said the insurgents shot back, wounding at least two people.
The incident was a rare example of Somali civilians standing up to heavily-armed insurgents who rule much of the country.
Hundreds of students and local people had taken to the streets after Hizbul Islam fighters stormed Elasha’s Ibnu Kuzeima secondary school, replaced the blue Somali flag with a black Islamist banner and then dragged away the principal.
“Residents took out their guns. Fighting is going on and I don’t think it will stop,” shopkeeper Aden Hussein told Reuters.
The demonstrators burned tyres and chanted: “We don’t want destructive Hizbul Islam. Down with them. They are destroyers.”
Hizbul officials later released the headmaster but the situation degenerated as residents began shooting at them.
“They have freed our principal but we shall not stop demonstrating,” student Halima Farah told Reuters by telephone.
On Monday, a group of Mogadishu residents attempted to protest against another rebel group, al Shabaab, which is blamed for a suicide bombing at a medical graduation ceremony last week that killed 22 people, including three government ministers.
Security forces told those protesters to go home, and they dispersed without incident.
Western security agencies say the failed Horn of Africa state is a safe haven for militants including foreign jihadists who use it to plot attacks across the region and beyond.
Somalia has lacked a functioning central government since 1991, and the Western-backed administration of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed controls just a few strategic sites in the capital.
Fighting has killed at least 19,000 Somali civilians since the start of 2007 and driven 1.5 million from their homes, triggering one of the world’s worst humanitarian disasters.
