BELARUS NEWS AND ANALYSIS

DATE:

25/03/2007

Belarus says its plane hit by missile

Somali officials begin probe of crash that killed 11 in Mogadishu

MOGADISHU-Belarus officials say a missile fired by Islamist fighters was responsible for the plane crash that left 11 people dead here on Friday.

"The plane was shot down," Transport Ministry spokeswoman Kseniya Perestoronina said in Minsk, adding that the large Ilyushin plane, in Somalia to assist struggling African Union peacekeepers, was hit at a height of 500 feet.

A Somali radio and an Islamist website also said a missile hit the Russian-made Ilyushin - used by a Belarussian firm - just after takeoff from Mogadishu.

But Somali Interior Minister Mohamed Mahamud Guled said it was more likely an accident downed the plane and confirmed that an investigation has begun.

The crash came after three days of the worst violence since the January start of a campaign that drove out the six-month regime of militant Islamists in Mogadishu.

Fighters believed to be a mixture of Islamists and disgruntled clan militia have been striking daily against government forces, Ethiopian troops and a contingent of 1,200 Ugandan soldiers in the vanguard of the African Union forcee.

At least 20 people have died and hundreds have been wounded since Wednesday in fighting that has caused thousands to flee Mogadishu.

Residents say the violence has accompanied a government-led disarmament drive resisted by Mogadishu's dominant Hawiye clan, many of whose members regard the drive as an attempt by the president, from the rival Darod clan, to marginalize them.

President Abdullahi Yusuf's interim government - the 14th attempt to establish central rule in Somalia since the 1991 overthrow of Mohamed Siad Barre's dictatorship and the anarchy that followed - says it wants to secure the gun-infested capital before a reconciliation conference that's scheduled to begin on April 16.

Reuters News Agency

Source:

http://www.thestar.com/News/article/195807