Somalia

聯As long as I聮m breathing, I will fight with the foreign troops who are coming to our country聰, said Abdiqadir Hassan Diriye, Associated Press reported on February 1. Hassan Diriye was one of hundreds of protesters in Mogadishu demonstrating in response to the African Union聮s announcement the day before that three battalions of AU 聯peacekeepers聰 would be deployed in Somalia.
In what seems to be becoming a signature atrocity of US President George Bush鈥檚 鈥渨ar on terror鈥, US air strikes hit a Somali wedding ceremony, according to a January 10 BBC Online report. Up to 31 people were killed. The BBC quoted the account of an elder in Banka-Jiira, a grazing area, who told the news service鈥檚 Somali branch: 鈥淭here have been air strikes carried out by American planes in these areas since Sunday. Here in the Banka-Jiira area, which is the largest grazing area in the Juba Valley region, we have been hard hit. There have been several air strikes over nearby Booji grazing area too. The most unfortunate incident was an attack on a big wedding ceremony 鈥