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Somalia: 'Muslims are being
massacred': Dobley mayor
7 Mar , 2008
DOBLEY, Somalia Mar 7 (Garowe Online) - The mayor of a town in
south Somalia which was the target of a U.S. air strike last week
says that al Qaeda has never set foot in the town.
Ali "Dheere" Hussein, the mayor of Dobley, told the BBC Somali
Service that the U.S. bombing killed innocent civilians.
"The only thing I see here is innocent people being massacred,"
Mayor Ali Dheere said, referring to a house hit by U.S. missiles
on March 3.
The mayor said that the Somali Transitional Federal Government did
not contact Dobley officials, even to send condolences to the
families of the deceased.
He said there is no hospital in Dobley town to treat the wounded
civilians, so "we took them to the pharmacy since the [Kenya]
border is closed."
Mayor Ali Dheere said the U.S. bombing was "wrong and
intentional," since the people of Dobley did not harm the U.S.
"I here about al Qaeda only from the U.S. government and the
Somali President [Abdullahi Yusuf]," the Dobley mayor said.
Asked about the intention of the U.S. bombing, Mayor Ali Dheere
said, in his opinion, that "Muslims are being massacred."
Righteous fighters
Hassan Turki, the commander of Islamist militias in south Somalia,
was a target in the U.S. bombing of Dobley.
He told the BBC that the American government is being lied to by
local opportunists, who are using the "terrorist card" to their
own advantage.
He compared U.S. policy to a man who once loved a girl, but the
girl refused him and so he gave her money every time he saw her.
"We are not terrorists. We are righteous fighters. [Former Somali
President] Mohamed Siad Barre released me from jail in 1964 to
fight the Amhara and now [Ethiopian Gen.] Gabre rules Villa
Somalia," Turki said.
He dismissed Somali President Yusuf's allegations that al Qaeda
fighters trained in Afghanistan were regrouping in Dobley.
"We were trained as children because the clans used to fight. All
Somalis are trained," he said with a slight chuckle.
Turki said he does not know the three al Qaeda fugitives whom the
U.S. government believes are being sheltered in southern Somalia.
"We don't know about them [three wanted al Qaeda operatives] but
even if they did exist, is it right to kill all the innocent
people for them?"
Source: Garowe Online
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