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Somalia: Puntland President Deploys 50 Battlewagons in Galkayo to Avert Islamist Fighters
weys Osman Yusuf
Mogadishu
The general situation in Bandiradley near Galkayo in central Somalia is calm on Monday after a fierce fighting between the Islamic Courts fighters and warlord Abdi Qeybdid's militias allegedly backed by Ethiopians and forces of Somalia's regional government of Puntland has taken place.
Semiautonomous administration of Puntland claimed it had recaptured the villages the Islamists seized in yesterday's heavy gunfight.
The regional government President Adde Musa Hirse accompanied by 50 battlewagons has reportedly set out to Bandiradley where the Union of Islamic Courts fighters are in control now.
Residents in Galkayo show concerns over the large numbers of military maneuver as Gen. Adde Musa was reported sketching to position the forces in and around Glakayo to defend the town against Islamic invasion.
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Islamic Courts spokesperson for central provinces Mohomood Mohammed Jim'ale Agowene has told Shabelle Radio in Mogadishu that Qeybdid's militias have escaped to Lanwaley village near the Ethiopian border.
Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, the Islamic Courts executive council leader, has shouted victory on the Islamic Courts side in the skirmishes in Bandiradley with Qeybdid's militias Sunday while addressing to reporters in Mogadishu's main seaport as the Somali pirates, who hijacked an Emirates cargo ship, were exposed to journalists after they were caught around Haradhere offshore in central Somalia where they had the hijacked vessel.
President Musa urged elders and local militias to defend Galkayo against Islamists.
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To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway
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