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Canada,(insidesomalia.org)- The Toronto Star is reporting that negotiations are underway to secure the release of a kidnapped Canadian journalist and her Australian and Somali colleagues.
Amanda Lindhout, 27, and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan were taken at gunpoint 10 days ago about 20 kilometres outside Mogadishu.
Their captors also seized a Somali driver and journalist Abdifatah Mohammed Elmi, who was acting as their guide.
Several sources in Somalia, Kenya and Canada said that contact had been made with the kidnappers through third-party negotiators and there was hope the journalists would be released soon.
Mohamed Ali Nur, Somalia's ambassador to Kenya, told the Star that reports indicated the journalists weren't hurt.
Lindhout was working in Somalia as a freelance journalist and is normally based in Baghdad.
The fighting in Somalia has reached a new intensity in the last year. The Horn of Africa nation is now believed to have surpassed Afghanistan and Iraq in terms of violence and instability.
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MOGADISHU, Somalia — Mortar shells slammed into Somalia's capital on Wednesday as insurgents vowed to intensify attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.
Somalia already sees near-daily explosions of bloodshed, and thousands of Somalis — most of them civilians — have been killed since mostly hawiye Terrorist(al shabaab ) began an Iraq-style insurgency in December 2006, after they were driven from power in Mogadishu and much of the south. At least four people were killed early Wednesday, said several witnesses who reported seeing the dead in two different neighborhoods of southern Mogadishu. It was not possible to get official confirmation because Ethiopian forces never speak to journalists and Somali authorities do not normally offer casualty figures or share other information about the violence in the capital. The two sides exchanged mortar and heavy machine-gun fire in a two-hour battle, forcing terrified residents to cower in their homes.
Wednesday's violence was the worst since Aug. 21, when four hours of fighting outside the presidential palace killed 12 Terrorist and injured 17 Terrorists. The insurgents are trying to topple the government and drive out Ethiopian troops who are propping up the administration.
"If we die while fasting for the sake of Allah, we will go to heaven," a 26-year-old ,Terrorist Abdi Yusuf, told The Associated Press by telephone. "So there is no reason why we shouldn't intensify the fighting." During Ramadan, Muslims are expected to abstain during daylight hours from food, drink, smoking and sex, to focus on spiritual introspection. But the Islamists' spokesmanTerrorist Abdirahin Issa Adow said fighters have "decided to redouble attacks against the Ethiopians and their stooges during the holy month of Ramadan," which began this week.
He said the Ramadan attacks do not violate the Quran because his fighters are battling "enemies of Allah." Somalia has been at war since 1991, when hawiye clan (USC) -Terrorist mohamad farah aideed ousted somalia Government and then fought for power among themselves. The conflict is complicated by ali mahdi (abgaal) hawye sub- clan and aideed( habargidir) sub-clan Fight Each Other and destroy somalia. .loyalties and the involvement of archenemies Eritrea and Ethiopia, who back opposite sides in the fighting. The last U.N. peacekeeping force in Somalia included American troops who arrived in 1992 and tried to arrest hawiye Terrorist warlords . That world somalia nation-building ended in October 1993, USC hawiye Terrorist shot down a U.S. Army Black Hawk helicopter during a battle that killed 18 American soldiers. Since then, Ethiopian troops are helped Somalia's transitional government push the Islamists Terrorist from power in Mogadishu and much of the south, . -->1991 Warlordism, terrorism ,(TRIBILISM) Replaces the Honourable Somali President Mohamed Siad Barre administration .
Posted by Terror Free Somalia Foundation