Monday 6 June 2011

Somalia's Al Shabab Militants Kill 4 Ugandan Soldiers - UPDF

KAMPALA, Uganda (Dow Jones)--Somalia's al Qaeda-inspired al Shabab militants killed four Ugandan troops over the weekend, including a senior army officer, in one of the deadliest days since the country deployed peacekeeping troops in the war-torn country, the Uganda Peoples Defense Forces said Monday.
Lt. Colonel Patrick Muhibwa, the acting commandant of the Sixth Battalion of the African Union troops in Somalia was killed together with three of his colleagues as he patrolled a "liberated" district in the war-torn port city of Mogadishu, the UPDF spokesman, Lt. Col Felix Kulayigye said.
"He was hit by an enemy bullet" he said. "This does not demoralize our resolve to restore stability to the Somalia people,"
Lt. Col Muhibwa is Uganda's most senior army officer to be killed in Somalia since the east African country deployed troops to prop up Somalia's weak transitional government in 2007.
Uganda and Burundi have around 9,000 troops in Somalia. The troops started an offensive against the al Shabab late last month and have since captured at least two districts as well as two strategic supply routes for the militants, according to Major Paddy Ankunda, the African Union Mission in Somalia spokesman.
Last week, the Ugandan president threatened to withdraw Ugandan troops from Somalia, following weeks of power wrangles between the Somali president and the parliamentary speaker.
The United Nations deputy special representative for Somalia, Wafula Wamunyinyi, visited injured troops in hospital in Mogadishu Monday and praised their exceptional courage and dedication, Ankunda said.
"We are very proud of the work they are all doing and we pray that our injured soldiers will have a quick recovery," Wamunyinyi said.
The al Shabab, which has intensified a recruitment drive in Somalia as well as the East African region in recent months, continue to be reinforced by foreign al Qaeda-trained fighters, mainly from Asia and the Middle East, according to Ugandan intelligence.
The al Shabab claimed responsibility of the July terror attacks in Kampala in which at least 79 people, including one American, were killed.
-By Nicholas Bariyo, contributing to Dow Jones Newswires; 256-75-2624615 bariyonic@yahoo.co.uk

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