MOGADISHU — Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed on Saturday vowed that twin suicide attacks which killed 21 people, including 17 peacekeepers, would not deter efforts to restore law and order.

“Such barbaric acts which have no basis in the Islamic culture will not discourage us from maintaining efforts to bring law and order in the country”, Sheikh Ahmed, an Islamist cleric, told journalists after Thursday’s attack.

The Al-Qaeda-inspired Shebab used two UN-tagged cars to slam explosives into the African Union peacekeeping mission’s Mogadishu headquarters, the deadliest attack on AMISOM since its March 2007 deployment.

Five Ugandan troops, 12 Burundians and four Somali soldiers were killed, prompting calls for a fresh injection of international assistance.

The AU’s special envoy to Somalia, Nicolas Bwakira, visited the base to pay homage to the dead, saying that peacekeepers’ morale remained high despite the attack, an AU statement said.

“He (Bwakira) was pleased to note that despite the criminal attack by Al-Shebab, the morale of the peacekeepers was very high as they showed determination to redouble their efforts in pursuit of their mission.”

The Shebab said they carried out the attack in revenge for a US raid that killed one of their leaders this week.

Sheikh Ahmed said that his transitional government had given US forces the go-ahead for the attack on regional Al-Qaeda leader Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan.

“The government knew about the presence of the top Al-Qaeda operatives, but we could not pursue and arrest them so we have given the US the green light to attack them,” he said.

Nabhan, a Kenyan citizen wanted by the FBI over the 2002 anti-Israeli attacks in Mombasa, was killed when his vehicle was targeted by US helicopters in southern Somalia, according to US officials and Western security sources.

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Source: AFP

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