Warlord promises to renew bloody fight for Mogadishu
Mogadishu, Somalia – One of the secular warlords who lost control of Somalia’s capital to an Islamic militia vowed Sunday that the battle for Mogadishu was not over – an ominous warning for a city devastated by years of bloodshed and anarchy.
However, it was unclear how many fighters and weapons the defeated alliance had, and many of the U.S.-backed warlords remain in hiding.
The threat came a day after Islamic fighters stopped showings of the World Cup soccer tournament, one of the first signs that the fundamentalist force now controlling nearly all of southern Somalia could install strict Islamic rule.
Muse Sudi Yalahow said his group of secular warlords is regrouping to fight the Islamic militia, whom he accused of having ties to al-Qaeda. U.S. officials have said they supported the warlords’ fight against Islamic leaders sheltering three al-Qaeda leaders indicted in the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania.
The state of the secular alliance and how many weapons it has is not clear. Many members are in hiding after weeks of fighting with the Islamic militia killed at least 330 people, many of them civilians. Its leader was believed to be in Ethiopia seeking reinforcements.
Mogadishu, home to an estimated 1.2 million people, has degenerated into a looted shantytown since the last effective central government collapsed in 1991.
ROME
Daughter born to brain-dead woman
A brain-dead woman kept alive artificially for more than two months gave birth Saturday to a premature baby girl.
A few hours after the birth, the 38-year-old woman was taken off life support and died, doctors at Milan’s Niguard Hospital said.
The baby girl, born two months early, was breathing on her own Sunday, doctors said.
Cristina, named after her mother, was born by cesarean section and weighed just over 1.5 pounds, the doctors said.
The woman was hospitalized in March after the rupture of a cerebral aneurysm and was soon declared brain dead, the hospital said. She spent 78 days in a brain-dead state. Her organs were donated for transplant.
KABUL, Afghanistan
To halt unrest, Karzai will arm tribesmen
Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Sunday his government will give weapons to local tribesmen so they can help fight the biggest increase in Taliban violence in years.
A U.S.-led coalition soldier and seven Afghan civilians were killed in the latest violence in the country’s south, which has been hardest hit by the surge in insurgent attacks.
Speaking to tribal elders from eastern Afghanistan, Karzai said he did not want to form militias that could clash with rival tribes. “We just want to strengthen the districts to safeguard them from terrorist attack,” he said.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska
Search scaled back for missing climbers
Two missing climbers on Mount Foraker have not had enough water or supplies to survive since they were last seen nearly a month ago, prompting officials on Sunday to scale back search efforts.
Sue Nott, 36, of Vail, Colo., and Karen McNeill, 37, of Canmore, Alberta had supplies that would have lasted 18 days in ideal conditions, said officials at Denali National Park and Preserve. In the best case scenario, they have had no water for 10 days.
“We’re shifting from a rescue to a recovery,” said park spokeswoman Kris Fister. “We don’t feel they’re alive anymore.” The veteran climbers were last seen on May 14 at the base of a tough technical route.
DAYTON, Ohio
Armored Humvees apt to roll, paper says
Thousands of pounds of armor added to military Humvees have made the vehicles more likely to roll over, killing and injuring soldiers in Iraq, a newspaper reported.
The armor has shielded soldiers from harm, but serious accidents involving the vehicles have increased as the war has progressed, and the accidents were much more likely to be rollovers, the Dayton Daily News reported.
An analysis of the Army’s ground accident database, which includes records from March 2003 through November 2005, found that 60 of the 85 soldiers who died in Humvee accidents in Iraq – or 71 percent – were killed when the vehicle rolled, the newspaper reported. Of the 337 injuries, 149 occurred in rollovers.
BEIT LAHIYA, Gaza Strip
Leaders to adopt girl whose dad was killed
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh on Saturday announced plans to adopt Huda Ghaliya, 11.
The sixth-grader became a symbol of Palestinian pain and loss Friday when a cameraman captured her shrieking “Father, Father, Father!” as she hovered over the bloody bodies of 13 dead or wounded members of her family, hit by what was apparently an errant Israeli artillery shell. The family had been picnicking on the beach.
Although Huda’s mother survived the explosion badly wounded, Palestinians consider a fatherless child to be an orphan. Her father, Ali, died. Another wife, Raisa, also died, along with five of Huda’s siblings.
