Hiiraan Online
Thursday, July 24, 2014
Hundreds of people mostly youths have been arrested in security search operations jointly conducted by Somali government forces and African Union peacekeepers in areas in the Hodon district south of Mogadishu on Thursday.
The operations began in the early hours of the day in different neighbourhoods in Hodon district including where the late legislator Saado Ali Warsame was killed on Wednesday.
Some officials leading the security operation told local media that a number of people suspected to have links with Al Shabab militants have been arrested during the operation.
“The arrested people are under investigation and those who are found guilty of having ties with terrorists will be held in custody while others will be freed as soon as investigations have completed” Hodon district deputy commissioner Ali Abdi Abdulle told local media.
He confirmed that those arrested in the operation included three men who assassinated a Somali military officer near the TARBUNKA area a night before.
Residents told the media that the forces have been conducting house-to-house searches. “The soldiers were entering the houses and arresting people” one eye witness Nur Muse told the media.
HOL English News Desk