Death at the Hidaya Mosque

By Alisha Ryu, "Mogadishu Residents Express Outrage After Ethiopian Troops Attack Mosque" - Voice of America - USA
Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Residents in the Somali capital Mogadishu are expressing outrage and anger against Ethiopian troops in the capital, whom they say massacred at least 10 people, including a senior religious leader, inside a mosque on Sunday.

According to eyewitness reports, the victims inside al-Hidaya Mosque in Mogadishu's Huriwa district were killed by Ethiopian troops on the second day of intense fighting, which left more than 80 people dead in the war-ravaged capital.

The witnesses allege that Ethiopian troops stormed the mosque on Sunday, shooting and killing Sheik Said Yahya, the mosque's most senior religious leader. Eyewitnesses say several others were also shot and killed, and a handful had their throats slit, after the Ethiopians accused them of supporting and training Islamist insurgents.

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Ethiopia denies its troops have committed atrocities. The Somali government says military operations are conducted in self-defense, noting that Islamist-led insurgents often cause numerous civilian casualties by launching attacks at Ethiopian and government troops in heavily-populated areas.

Sources in Mogadishu say the Hidaya mosque, one of the largest in Mogadishu, may have been targeted by the Ethiopians because it had long served as a base for different Islamic groups, including al-Ittihad al-Islami, a militant Somali group the United States has labeled as a terror organization.

But the sources say in recent years, the Hidaya Mosque has been a place of worship for adherents of a mystical branch of Sunni Islam called Sufism.

Most Somalis belong to the Sufi order, which has no ties to the ultra-fundamentalist Wahhabi movement embraced by members of al-Ittihad and its successor, the Shabab.

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[Picture: Somalians prepare body of man killed in clashes in Mogadishu, 21 Apr 2008. Photo: AFP].