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The murder of the Eyeingtons at the Sheikh Secondary School, 500 miles north of Mogadishu, prompted fears of an anti-western backlash as a result of the war in Iraq.
The couple had lived and worked in Africa for 30 years, and Mr Eyeington was headmaster at the school attended by Nelson Mandela's children.
http://news.scotsman.com/paperboy.cfm?id=362742004
Murdered Britons target of al-Qaeda, claims Somaliland
GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN
DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT
Key points
"â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¢ Al-Qaeda responsible for deaths of British couple Somaliland's interior min
ster has claimed
"â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¢ Third attack on foreign nationals in four weeks
"â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¢ Killers said to have entered Somaliland from neighbouring Somalia
Key quote
"
Al-Qaeda wants to turn all the Somali-speak
ing territories in the Horn into another Afghanistan." - Editorial in the
Somaliland Times
Story in full
A BRITISH couple murdered by gunmen in the breakaway East African state of Somaliland were the victims of an al-Qaeda
cell sent to kill humanitarian workers, the country's interior minister has claimed.
Richard Eyeington, 62, and his wife Enid, 61, died when a gunman opened fire through the window of their home as they sat watching television last October.
Two weeks earlier, gunmen had shot dead an Italian doctor in the country, and, two weeks ago, a Kenyan consultant working for a German aid agency was killed and her German colleague was injured in another gun attack.
Five men have already been arrested in connection with the killings, but other mem
bers of the group remain on the run.
Now Ismail Adan Osman, the country's interior minister, says the attacks were the work of an al-Qaeda cell sent to Som
aliland from Mogadishu, in neighbouring Somalia, to
kill foreign workers. Two of the al-Qaeda operatives identified by the Somaliland authorities ar
e on a United States' wanted list.
According to Mr Osman, the five gunmen already arrested have confessed to carrying out the latest attack as part of a wider al-Qaeda-run operation.
The two men on the US wanted list are reported to have escaped to Mogadishu, which has long been considered by Washington to be a safe haven for al-Qaeda operatives.
Supporters of the al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, are said to have orchestrated the campaign against US troops during the ill-fated intervention in Somalia in 1992, when dozens of United Nations troops lost their lives. In the most notorious incident, 18 US soldiers were killed when their Black Hawk helicopters were shot down in 199
3.
The US recently sent troops back to Somalia to hunt for al-Qaeda terrorists thought to be hiding in the country, and to look for Somalis training fo
r missions into Iraq. Last year, a US special forces operat
ion ended with the seizure of a Yemeni al-Qaeda suspect.
Somaliland has also accused its neighbour of
harbouring terrorist groups, and Mr Osman claimed that three of the five men arrested were related to the Somali interim president, Abdiqasim Salad Hasan.
It is the first time al-Qaeda has been linked to killings inside Somaliland, a relatively stable country which declared independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991 but which is still seeking international recognition.
However, the group is believed to have little support in the country, which is keen to win international recognition and to gain support for its anti-terrorist operations.
An editorial in the Somaliland Times, on Saturday spoke angrily of an attempt by al-Qaeda to destabilise the country. <br
>
It read: "Al-Qaeda wants to turn all the Somali-speaking territories in the Horn into another Afghanistan. (It is just a pity that these ri
ch Wahabists should spend their money for causing further death and destr
uction to fellow Muslims).
"Secondly, al-Qaeda sees Somaliland's on-going democratic transformation as a threat agains
t its Wahabist form of Islam, one of the main root-causes of current Islamist extremism. There is no doubt that the people of Somaliland will rise up to meet the challenges posed by the threat of terrorism."
A senior government official quoted by the paper said that Somaliland needed international assistance if it was to combat the terrorist threat.
"As long as potential terrorists continued enjoying sanctuary in Mogadishu and elsewhere in former Italian Somalia, coupled with the international community's continued failure to respond to Somaliland's repeated requests for external assistance, needed to substantially enhance the countr
y's counter-terrorism capabilities, the terrorist threat would still be there," he said.
The murder of the Eyeingtons at the Sheikh
Secondary School, 500 miles north of Mogadishu, prompted fears of an anti-western
backlash as a result of the war in Iraq.
The couple had lived and worked in Africa for 30 years, and Mr Eyeington was headmaster at the school at
tended by Nelson Mandela's children.
The murder of the Eyeingtons at the Sheikh Secondary School, 500 miles north of Mogadishu, prompted fears of an anti-western backlash as a result of the war in Iraq.
The couple had lived and worked in Africa for 30 years, and Mr Eyeington was headmaster at the school attended by Nelson Mandela's children.
http://news.scotsman.com/paperboy.cfm?id=362742004
Murdered Britons target of al-Qaeda, claims Somaliland
GETHIN CHAMBERLAIN
DIPLOMATIC CORRESPONDENT
Key points
"â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¢ Al-Qaeda responsible for deaths of British couple Somaliland's interior min
ster has claimed
"â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¢ Third attack on foreign nationals in four weeks
"â┚¬Ã…¡ÃƒÆ’”�šÃ”š¢ Killers said to have entered Somaliland from neighbouring Somalia
Key quote
"
Al-Qaeda wants to turn all the Somali-speak
ing territories in the Horn into another Afghanistan." - Editorial in the
Somaliland Times
Story in full
A BRITISH couple murdered by gunmen in the breakaway East African state of Somaliland were the victims of an al-Qaeda
cell sent to kill humanitarian workers, the country's interior minister has claimed.
Richard Eyeington, 62, and his wife Enid, 61, died when a gunman opened fire through the window of their home as they sat watching television last October.
Two weeks earlier, gunmen had shot dead an Italian doctor in the country, and, two weeks ago, a Kenyan consultant working for a German aid agency was killed and her German colleague was injured in another gun attack.
Five men have already been arrested in connection with the killings, but other mem
bers of the group remain on the run.
Now Ismail Adan Osman, the country's interior minister, says the attacks were the work of an al-Qaeda cell sent to Som
aliland from Mogadishu, in neighbouring Somalia, to
kill foreign workers. Two of the al-Qaeda operatives identified by the Somaliland authorities ar
e on a United States' wanted list.
According to Mr Osman, the five gunmen already arrested have confessed to carrying out the latest attack as part of a wider al-Qaeda-run operation.
The two men on the US wanted list are reported to have escaped to Mogadishu, which has long been considered by Washington to be a safe haven for al-Qaeda operatives.
Supporters of the al-Qaeda leader, Osama bin Laden, are said to have orchestrated the campaign against US troops during the ill-fated intervention in Somalia in 1992, when dozens of United Nations troops lost their lives. In the most notorious incident, 18 US soldiers were killed when their Black Hawk helicopters were shot down in 199
3.
The US recently sent troops back to Somalia to hunt for al-Qaeda terrorists thought to be hiding in the country, and to look for Somalis training fo
r missions into Iraq. Last year, a US special forces operat
ion ended with the seizure of a Yemeni al-Qaeda suspect.
Somaliland has also accused its neighbour of
harbouring terrorist groups, and Mr Osman claimed that three of the five men arrested were related to the Somali interim president, Abdiqasim Salad Hasan.
It is the first time al-Qaeda has been linked to killings inside Somaliland, a relatively stable country which declared independence from the rest of Somalia in 1991 but which is still seeking international recognition.
However, the group is believed to have little support in the country, which is keen to win international recognition and to gain support for its anti-terrorist operations.
An editorial in the Somaliland Times, on Saturday spoke angrily of an attempt by al-Qaeda to destabilise the country. <br
>
It read: "Al-Qaeda wants to turn all the Somali-speaking territories in the Horn into another Afghanistan. (It is just a pity that these ri
ch Wahabists should spend their money for causing further death and destr
uction to fellow Muslims).
"Secondly, al-Qaeda sees Somaliland's on-going democratic transformation as a threat agains
t its Wahabist form of Islam, one of the main root-causes of current Islamist extremism. There is no doubt that the people of Somaliland will rise up to meet the challenges posed by the threat of terrorism."
A senior government official quoted by the paper said that Somaliland needed international assistance if it was to combat the terrorist threat.
"As long as potential terrorists continued enjoying sanctuary in Mogadishu and elsewhere in former Italian Somalia, coupled with the international community's continued failure to respond to Somaliland's repeated requests for external assistance, needed to substantially enhance the countr
y's counter-terrorism capabilities, the terrorist threat would still be there," he said.
The murder of the Eyeingtons at the Sheikh
Secondary School, 500 miles north of Mogadishu, prompted fears of an anti-western
backlash as a result of the war in Iraq.
The couple had lived and worked in Africa for 30 years, and Mr Eyeington was headmaster at the school at
tended by Nelson Mandela's children.