Somalia minister says regional government soldiers kill 15 militiamen in northeastern region

Somalia: Soldiers kill 15 militia members

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Security forces on Sunday attacked the base of a militia linked to an extremist group and killed 15 militiamen, a regional government minister said.

Yusuf Ahmed Kheir, security minister for the semiautonomous northeastern region of Puntland, said soldiers were countering the militia’s attack on an army post near the region’s commercial capital, Bossaso.

Militia spokesman Abdullahi Sheik denied they attacked first, saying the soldiers surprised them. Sheik said no militiamen were killed and only seven were injured. He said that there were civilian casualties but did not give any figures.

Sunday’s clash is the second in two weeks between Puntland forces and the militia group, which is led by arms dealer Mohamed Atom. He has been singled out by the U.N. for supplying arms to the al-Shabab extremist group. The U.S. has declared al-Shabab a terrorist organization.

In the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, the U.N. envoy for Somalia said that in coming months international staff from the organization may work in the battle-scarred Somali capital of Mogadishu, for the first time in many years.

Augustine Mahiga said at a news conference on Sunday that the organization is building sleeping quarters for 14 members of staff and other facilities within the main compound of the African Union peacekeeping mission in Mogadishu.

The structures should be completed in about three months time and after that the U.N. may send staff to work there, security permitting, said Mahiga. He said staff are being recruited and the process will be completed in about two months.

One sign that security will have improved enough to send U.N. staff to Mogadishu is when African governments follow through on their decision last month to increase the size of the 5,200-strong AU force to the originally intended 8,100, Mahiga said.

“We see this as most important. First of all, to present a continuous partnership and interaction with the transitional government,” Mahiga said.

The U.N.’s Somalia operations are based in Nairobi because of insecurity in Somalia. It does not have any international staff based in southern Somalia, though some of its agencies have Somali staff working in that part of the Horn of Africa nation.

African governments have been pledging to send additional troops since the AU force was first deployed in Mogadishu in 2007, but have held back for a variety of reasons. The al-Shabab attack on two recreational sites in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, on July 11, killing 76 people, has focussed attention again on Somalia and may give new impetus to international efforts to further support the weak, U.N.-backed government.

Somalia has not had an effective government for 19 years. Islamic insurgents led by al-Shabab have been trying to topple the government from Mogadishu since January 2007. The AU force has ensured the government stays because the force’s mandate is to protect key government officials and installations such as the air and sea port in Mogadishu.

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Associated Press writer Tom Maliti in Nairobi, Kenya contributed to this report.