Hiiraan Online
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Mogadishu, Somalia (HOL) - Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG) has denied reports that say the mandate of AMISOM troops has broadened to include pre-emptive attacks on insurgent bases in Somalia.
In a press conference held in Mogadishu today, the Minister of National Security Mr. Abduallahi Mohamed Ali Sanbalooshe told reporters that it is not true that the mission of AMISOM troops has been broadened to allow them to engage in pre-emptive attacks on bases under the control of insurgents opposed to the TFG.
The Minister, however, admitted that there has been a discussion to re-examine the mandate of AMISOM troops in Mogadishu.
On the other hand, the Defence Minister of Uganda Mr. Crispus Kiyonga who attended AU leaders conference in Libya said that the mandate of Ugandan troops in Somalia has been broadened and would include from now on the option of attacking insurgent bases who attack them while in the past they only defended their positions.
Somalia’s TFG Minister of National Security also denied that Ethiopian forces have recently entered the city of Beledweyne and that they are currently still stationed in some parts of Hiiraan Region. The Minister added that the people who are spreading these stories about the presence of Ethiopian troops in Hiiraan Region have seen Somalia defence forces who are dressed and equipped like Ethiopian troops.
Lastly, the TFG’s National Defence Minister sent a message to Somaliland administration warning them not take lightly the recent warning from the leader of Al-Shabaab Sheik Muqtar Abdirahman Abu Zebeir who labelled Somaliland administration as acting against the teachings of Islam.