Somali authorities have arrested an elderly Islamic cleric suspected of involvement in a wave of suicide attacks that killed more than 20 people, an official said on Thursday.
Sheik Mohamed Ismail was arrested in connection with five attacks on Wednesday in the breakaway republic of Somaliland and in Somalia’s Puntland region, said Muse Gelle Yusuf, a governor in Puntland.
He said several other people were being sought in connection with the attacks in the two areas, which have largely been spared the deadly violence of the south.
Ismail, believed to be in his 80s, was arrested on Wednesday, Yusuf said.
No one immediately claimed responsibility for the blasts, but the US says they had the signature of al-Qaeda.
The attacks targeted a UN compound, the Ethiopian consulate and the presidential palace in Somaliland’s capital, Hargeisa. Two intelligence facilities were hit in Puntland.
Somalia has been without a functioning government since 1991, when clan warlords ousted longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other. The current government was formed in 2004 with the help of the UN.
Islamic militants have waged an insurgency against Somali government troops and their Ethiopian allies for almost two years.
Somalia’s north has tried to sever ties with the chaotic south, which includes the beleaguered capital, Mogadishu. Puntland has a semiautonomous administration, and Somaliland has long sought international recognition as being its own nation.
Mark Bowden, the UN resident and humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, confirmed the death of two Somali UN staffers — a security officer and a driver — in the attack on the UN compound. Six other UN staffers were injured, two of whom evacuated to Djibouti for immediate medical attention.
ANGER: A video shared online showed residents in a neighborhood confronting the national security minister, attempting to drag her toward floodwaters Argentina’s port city of Bahia Blanca has been “destroyed” after being pummeled by a year’s worth of rain in a matter of hours, killing 13 and driving hundreds from their homes, authorities said on Saturday. Two young girls — reportedly aged four and one — were missing after possibly being swept away by floodwaters in the wake of Friday’s storm. The deluge left hospital rooms underwater, turned neighborhoods into islands and cut electricity to swaths of the city. Argentine Minister of National Security Patricia Bullrich said Bahia Blanca was “destroyed.” The death toll rose to 13 on Saturday, up from 10 on Friday, authorities
OPTIMISTIC: A Philippine Air Force spokeswoman said the military believed the crew were safe and were hopeful that they and the jet would be recovered A Philippine Air Force FA-50 jet and its two-person crew are missing after flying in support of ground forces fighting communist rebels in the southern Mindanao region, a military official said yesterday. Philippine Air Force spokeswoman Colonel Consuelo Castillo said the jet was flying “over land” on the way to its target area when it went missing during a “tactical night operation in support of our ground troops.” While she declined to provide mission specifics, Philippine Army spokesman Colonel Louie Dema-ala confirmed that the missing FA-50 was part of a squadron sent “to provide air support” to troops fighting communist rebels in
Two daughters of an Argentine mountaineer who died on an icy peak 40 years ago have retrieved his backpack from the spot — finding camera film inside that allowed them a glimpse of some of his final experiences. Guillermo Vieiro was 44 when he died in 1985 — as did his climbing partner — while descending Argentina’s Tupungato lava dome, one of the highest peaks in the Americas. Last year, his backpack was spotted on a slope by mountaineer Gabriela Cavallaro, who examined it and contacted Vieiro’s daughters Guadalupe, 40, and Azul, 44. Last month, the three set out with four other guides
ECONOMIC DISTORTION? The US commerce secretary’s remarks echoed Elon Musk’s arguments that spending by the government does not create value for the economy US Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick on Sunday said that government spending could be separated from GDP reports, in response to questions about whether the spending cuts pushed by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency could possibly cause an economic downturn. “You know that governments historically have messed with GDP,” Lutnick said on Fox News Channel’s Sunday Morning Futures. “They count government spending as part of GDP. So I’m going to separate those two and make it transparent.” Doing so could potentially complicate or distort a fundamental measure of the US economy’s health. Government spending is traditionally included in the GDP because
RSS