KavkazCenter - Somali troops seize chairman of Hawiye clan

Somali troops seize chairman of Hawiye clan

Somali troops seized the chairman of Mogadishu's major Hawiye clan Wednesday. The clan's political spokesman, Ahmed Derie, has told that Hajji Abdi Iman Omar was taken out of his home in Mogadishu.

"A number of Somali troops aboard a battlewagon took the chairman of Hawiye committee out of his home. We have contacted with the mayor, Mohammed Dheere, over the capture and he told us he was not aware of it," Deire said.

Several people have also been reported to have been seized by Somali and Ethiopian forces that were in search operations in the capital today.

The Somali government has not commented on the arrest of the clan leader. Mohammed Dheere had threatened to arrest the clan leaders after he accused them of being behind the series of bomb attacks on Somalia officials and foreign troops.

Dheere said Hawiye claimed it was fighting with the Ethiopian and Somali troops in the past. "Only Hawiye which claimed that Islamists were in fight with the government but Hawiye are now to blame for the bomb explosions in Mogadishu," he told local journalists in early this week.

Source: Shabelle