Somali militant group claims bombing of Ethiopians
ICC Note
“Al Shabaab is informing Muslim society to keep away from the infidels of Ethiopia whether they are in military dress or not.”
By Aweys Yusuf
Feb 7 Somalia (Reuters) – A militant Somali Islamist group linked to al Qaeda claimed responsibility on Thursday for bombings that killed at least 20 Ethiopian immigrants in a northern Somali port earlier this week.
Ethiopia ‘s military is helping the interim Somali government fight Islamist-led guerrillas in Mogadishu , and the rebels have long exploited the traditional rivalry between Muslim Somalia and the Horn of Africa neighbour seen as Christian-led.
“This is a message to the Puntland authority which had extended a welcome and showed affection to the long-time enemy Ethiopians,” the Web site, www.kataaib.net, said.
“Al Shabaab is informing Muslim society to keep away from the infidels of Ethiopia whether they are in military dress or not.”
Many Ethiopians risk the perilous passage across northern Somalia to reach the port at Bosasso and catch a boat across the Gulf of Aden in search of a better life in Yemen .
Al Shabaab was the hardline military wing of the Islamist movement that briefly controlled Mogadishu in the second half of 2006 and wanted to put Somalia under Islamic law until the government and Ethiopia defeated it.
Security officials have implicated al Shabaab members in the assassination of aid workers and a string of killings and bomb attacks in Mogadishu .
In Mogadishu , where the government and Ethiopia are fighting near-daily insurgent attacks, Islamist insurgents attacked a police station and two children died in the ensuing artillery barrage, residents said.
