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March 7th,
2008 - Somalia: ‘Muslims are being Massacred’: Dobley mayor |
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Somalia: ‘Muslims are being Massacred’:
Dobley mayor By Garowe Online March 7, 2008 Dobley - The mayor of a town
in south Somalia which was the target of a U.S. air strike last week says
that al Qaeda has never set foot in the town. Ali "Dheere"
Hussein, the mayor of Dobley, told the BBC Somali Service that the U.S.
bombing killed innocent civilians. "The only thing I see
here is innocent people being massacred," Mayor Ali Dheere said,
referring to a house hit by U.S. missiles on March 3. The mayor said that the
Somali Transitional Federal Government did not contact Dobley officials, even
to send condolences to the families of the deceased. He said there is no hospital
in Dobley town to treat the wounded civilians, so "we took them to the
pharmacy since the [Kenya] border is closed." Mayor Ali Dheere said the
U.S. bombing was "wrong and intentional," since the people of
Dobley did not harm the U.S. "I here about al Qaeda
only from the U.S. government and the Somali President [Abdullahi
Yusuf]," the Dobley mayor said. Asked about the intention of
the U.S. bombing, Mayor Ali Dheere said, in his opinion, that "Muslims
are being massacred." Righteous fighters Hassan Turki, the commander
of Islamist militias in south Somalia, was a target in the U.S. bombing of
Dobley. He told the BBC that the
American government is being lied to by local opportunists, who are using the
"terrorist card" to their own advantage. He compared U.S. policy to a
man who once loved a girl, but the girl refused him and so he gave her money
every time he saw her. "We are not terrorists.
We are righteous fighters. [Former Somali President] Mohamed Siad Barre
released me from jail in 1964 to fight the Amhara and now [Ethiopian Gen.]
Gabre rules Villa Somalia," Turki said. He dismissed Somali
President Yusuf's allegations that al Qaeda fighters trained in Afghanistan
were regrouping in Dobley. "We were trained as
children because the clans used to fight. All Somalis are trained," he
said with a slight chuckle. Turki said he does not know
the three al Qaeda fugitives whom the U.S. government believes are being
sheltered in southern Somalia. "We don't know about
them [three wanted al Qaeda operatives] but even if they did exist, is it
right to kill all the innocent people for them?" External link: http://tinyurl.com/349j5f |