afrol News, 8 July - Islamist insurgents have attacked Somali government headquarters in Baidoa killing at least four soldiers last night, officials said on Tuesday. The attack comes just two years since the first attack in Baidoa in 2006.

The al-Shabaab claimed the attack, saying it was a move targeted at presidential palace in Baidoa, 250 kilometers northwest of Mogadishu and home to the country's transitional parliament.

Somali government security official Mr Hussein Mohamed Moalim said soldiers were killed and several others admitted to hospital after a mortar shell struck a tent where they were sleeping near the presidential palace.

An eyewitness said mortar shells struck the palace area for about 45 minutes, saying he saw wounded soldiers being retrieved from the tent this morning.

An attack comes on the eve of the coming into effect of a truce agreement signed by rival factions in Djibouti last month, but Al-Shabab has refused to abide by the ceasefire.

The peace deal reached on 9 June gave all sides a month to start enforcing a cessation of hostilities but it was promptly rejected by Islamist hardliners, who insist Ethiopian forces should withdraw before any talks start.

Al-Shabab spokesman Mr Sheikh Mukhtar Robow said his fighters were behind the attack, saying the attack was a signal that Baidoa, the only town which is claimed fully by the government, was no longer safe.

He said that a ceasefire signed last month between government and opposition groups would never go into effect until Ethiopia has left Somali land.

Another Islamist leader, Mr Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, founder of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) that ruled much of Somalia in 2006, before being ousted by Ethiopian forces backed by Somali government troops, also rejected the deal.

Somali Prime Minister Nur Hassan Hussein requested an urgent deployment of UN troops yesterday in a meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, to stabilise the country as Ethiopian troops have been withdrawing as agreed by Djibouti peace accord.

Insurgents also launched lethal attacks against government and Ethiopian troops in the capital and the centre of the country. The UN has warned that nearly half of Somalia's population is likely to require aid later this year.

Somalia's transitional administration was formed in 2004 with the help of the United Nations, but it has failed to assert real control. After Islamic militants seized control of Mogadishu and most of southern Somalia, the government called in troops from Ethiopia in December 2006 to oust them.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew Dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and turned on each other. Thousands of civilians have been killed in Somalia since 2007, caught in vicious disputes over ancient clan loyalties, religion and government.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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