Commander of the Somali police killed in Mogadishu

1/25/2005

The commander of the Somali police gen. Youssef Ahmad who is in charge of investigating the desecration an Italian cemetery in Mogadishu was killed, according to his family.

One member of the family of Gen Ahmad said he was killed on Sunday morning by the bullets of veiled men and he was buried in Mogadishu.

Many sources in the Somali capital considered that the assassination of the Gen. is linked to the case of "Desecration of the Italian cemetery" in the capital.

The Somali government condemned "desecrating the cemetery" and announced the appointment of a high ranking army officer to negotiate with the gunmen who have been occupying the cemetery and re-burial of the remains of bodies uprooted.

Gunmen, at the instructions of Muslim men of religion last week dug more than 500 remains buried in the Italian cemetery in Mogadishu under the pretext they had received an order from a legislative court to do this in order to build houses.