Two British teachers killed by Islamic militants in Somalia
Last updated at 16:04pm on 14th April 2008
Two Britons, including a woman, were among four killed after heavily armed
Islamic militants stormed a school in Somalia, it emerged today.
The teachers were gunned down when insurgents took control of Hakab
Private
English School after seizing the central Somali town of Belet Weyne as the
region exploded in violence.
The victims were Rehena Ahmed, 32, and Daud Hassan Ali, 70, who both had
British pass****ts and were of Somali origin, and two Kenyans, Police
revealed.
All four were shot in the head, witnesses claim.
The 70-year-old man's nephew, Abdul-qadir Anshur Ali, said: "My uncle came
to the region to help its people learn something and now he is dead for no
reason."
He added that his uncle was married to a British woman and had two sons in
Birmingham.
The attack yesterday was one of several carried out by Al Shaabab, who are
understood to be linked to Al Qaeda.
"Al Shaabab fighters entered the town and suddenly attacked houses of
government officials," said resident Ahmed Elmi.
"Then they attacked a school where they killed two Kenyans, a British
woman
and a Somali man with a British pass****t."
Witness Abdi-qani Ha**** said the fighters arrived late yesterday, took up
strategic positions, freed prisoners and burned the governor's house
before
withdrawing.
"The insurgents came into the town peacefully because the government
forces
retreated to the Somali-Ethiopian border earlier as they received
information that the militants were heading the town," added police chief
Abdi Aden Adow.
He also said two of the dead had British pass****ts and two others were
Kenyan.
resident, Nur Muse, said that the militants had left the town on Monday.
"Local people are terrified because people who were involved in educating
our people were killed last night," he said. The British man, who is
ethnically Somali, had come back to his home to build a school, Muse said.
Insurgents have taken nearly a dozen towns in brief attacks in the past
few
months, but usually withdraw after a few hours.
In the southern town of Merka, cinema owner Abdi-Alalah said four people
were killed and 16 wounded when gunmen threw a grenade into a building
where
hundreds of young people were watching a Hollywood movie.
In the capital, Mogadishu, Burundian peacekeepers had their base attacked
overnight - but there were no injuries, Captain Clement Cimana said.
Several hours of gunfire could be heard last night near two police bases
in
the capital, but no details were available.
Insurgents also ambushed an Ethiopian army convoy as it drove through
central Somalia yesterday, sparking a 30-minute gunfight, said a resident
of
nearby Halgan village who gave his name only as Ba****r.
Insurgents have been battling the weak UN-backed government and its
Ethiopian allies for control since their combined forces pushed the
Islamists from the capital in December 2006.
The Al Shabaab Islamists regrouped in Eritrea, Ethiopia's archenemy, and
vowed to fight an Iraq-style insurgency.
The group, who are believed to have links to Al Qaeda, was added to a U.S.
list of terrorist organisations in late February.
It is leading an insurgency against the Somali interim government and its
Ethiopian military allies in the capital Mogadishu, in which at least
6,500
have been killed in the last year.
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.
The Foreign Office today confirmed it was investigating the deaths of two
of
its citizens.
A spokesman said: "Staff from the High Commission in Nairobi are urgently
investigating but the Foreign and Commonwealth Office are unable to
confirm
any of the details at present."
A senior commander of the al Shabaab, Mukhtar Ali Robow, said the four
victims were killed accidentally in crossfire.
"Our motive was not to kill innocent people," he told Reuters by telephone
from an undisclosed location. "Their guards shot at us and we had to fire
back."
The al Shabaab is the militant wing of a sharia courts group that ruled
most
of southern Somalia for the second half of 2006.
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