‘I heard a gang of terrorists trying to kill our president’

[Jacaylbaro]

A LEADING member of the capital’s Somali community has told how he witnessed terror attacks aimed at assassinating his homeland’s president.

 

Eid Ali Ahmed, who is deputy chief executive of the Welsh Refugee Council, has returned to Cardiff after a three-month stay in Somaliland, a former British colony in East Africa.

 

Of the estimated 10,000 Somalis living in Wales, the vast majority originate from Somaliland, which has unofficially had independence from its war-torn southern neighbour Somalia for 17 years.

 

Mr Ahmed, who has close links with the country’s political leadership, said: “One day I was visiting the hospital in Hargeysa, the capital city, with a minister. Suddenly there was a big bang, followed a minute later by another big bang. At the time we knew something very serious had happened. Five minutes later there was a third huge bang, and it was obvious there had been a co-ordinated attack by terrorists.

 

“It quickly became clear that suicide bombers had driven Land Cruisers into the United Nations building, the Ethiopian Embassy and the Presidential compound.

 

“Each of the Land Cruisers had two terrorists – one driving, and another to detonate a bomb as the vehicle smashed into the building. Twenty-four people were killed, including the President’s senior private secretary, Dahir Ali-Eid, with whom I had lunch just a few days before.The President was in his compound at the time, and his life was only saved because a parked car in a courtyard stopped the Land Cruiser going further.”

 

Mr Ahmed said the Islamic extremists who committed the attacks, aimed at derailing Somaliland’s fledgling democracy, belonged to a group called Al-Shabaab (The Youth), whose leaders had links with Osama Bin Laden.

 

President Daahir Rayaale Kaahin, speaking to the South Wales Echo from his office in Hargeysa, said: “Seven members of my staff were killed in this terrorist attack but we are determined that they will not defeat our democracy.

 

“We are carrying on with the electoral registration process they were trying to disrupt, and virtually the whole country is behind that.

 

“The terrorists have very little support, although a small number of young people have been brainwashed.”

 

 

by Martin Shipton,

South Wales Echo

[Poker]

Eid is a one of the founders of SNM also named UFO group.