Monday, October 15, 2007
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Somali rivals in the north fought over a regional capital, with one side claiming to have captured it Monday after an unknown number of casualties.
Tensions have been simmering for weeks in the usually quiet north, far from the Islamic insurgency in the south. The semiautonomous northeastern region of Puntland and the northern breakaway republic of Somaliland are clashing over the Sool region, whose capital is Las Anod.
"We have defeated the Puntland troops who attacked us early in the morning (Monday). We have captured Las Anod town and its environs," Somaliland government spokesman Said Adani told The Associated Press by phone. "The town is calm and there is no violence inside it now."
Adani said there were "casualties" on both sides but declined to give figures. He said Somaliland troops will remain in the town, "as it is part and parcel of Somaliland."
Jama Hirsi Farah, Puntland's minister of state for security, confirmed the fighting, but declined to comment on the status of Las Anod.
The weak government in the national capital, Magodishu, has little authority outside the south, and even there challenged by Islamic fighters and clan divisions.
Somaliland bases its claim to Las Anod on history, saying it was part of the area Britain ruled until Somaliland got independence in 1960 and then united with Italian Somaliland to form present-day Somalia. Puntland says Las Anod's inhabitants belong to the same clan as Puntland's.
Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when rival warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre then turned on each other. The impoverished Horn of Africa nation is awash with weapons and riven by clan rivalries, but until now Somaliland and Puntland have managed to avoid much of the clan-based fighting that has plagued central and southern Somalia.
Source: AP, Oct 15, 2007