Posted on 09/17/2006 5:51:41 AM PDT by Brilliant
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Gunmen shot and killed an Italian nun at a children's hospital in Mogadishu on Sunday in an attack that drew immediate speculation of links to Muslim anger over the Pope's recent remarks on Islam.
The Catholic nun's bodyguard also died in the latest attack apparently aimed at foreign personnel in volatile Somalia.
The assassinations were a blow to Mogadishu's new Islamist rulers' attempt to prove they have pacified one of the world's most lawless cities since chasing out warlords in June.
The bodyguard died instantly, but the nun was rushed into an operating theater at the hospital after the shooting.
"After serious injuries, she died in the hospital treatment room," doctor Ali Mohamed Hassan told Reuters.
"She was shot three times in the back."
Details of the incident at the so-called SOS hospital in north Mogadishu were sketchy. But one suspect was quickly arrested by Islamist militiamen who control the capital, witnesses near the scene said.
A high-level Islamist source told Reuters the attack may well be linked to the controversy over Pope Benedict's recent remarks about holy wars, which have been taken by many Muslims as an attempt to portray their religion as innately violent.
"SOS hospital is assisted by the Catholic Church and the slain aid worker was a nun," the source said. "There is a very high possibility the people who killed her were angered by the Catholic Pope's recent comments against Islam."
LITANY OF KILLINGS
Borne out of local courts practicing strict sharia law, the Islamist movement in June seized Mogadishu from U.S.-backed warlords who had run it for the past 15 years.
The Islamists have brought some order to the capital, which was awash with guns and where assassinations were common. But the nun's death -- and the June killing of a Swedish cameraman -- will damage their claim Mogadishu is now safe for foreigners.
Critics of the Islamists say they harbour al Qaeda-linked extremists in their ranks. The top Islamist leader, hardline cleric Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, is on U.S. and U.N. lists of people accused of links to terrorism.
The Islamists deny that, saying the West does not understand them and is succumbing to U.S. propaganda.
Bedri Hashi, an information officer for the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), said the killing may have been an attempt by enemies of the Islamists to hurt their image.
"I believe this attack was orchestrated by people who want to discredit the Islamic Courts," he told Reuters.
The Italian nun, whose name could not be immediately confirmed, was the latest in a litany of foreign aid workers and other international staff to be killed in Somalia during its recent, violent past.
The most high-profile recent killing was of Swedish cameraman Martin Adler in June during an Islamist rally.
Another Italian aid worker, Annalena Tonelli, was shot dead in the self-declared enclave of Somaliland in 2003.
Although the Islamists have managed to get guns off the streets and bring down roadblocks often run by young, erratic militiamen loyal to warlords, Mogadishu remains full of weapons and tensions are high.
The Islamists are engaged in a political standoff with the Western-backed interim government of Somalia which is based in Baidoa and has little military muscle of its own.
Sister Leonella, RIP
Kofi is a waste of time , glad to see him go , can it get any worse probably . . .
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1702986/posts#51 translates an Italian report that names her
What a wonderful story!! Gee, I'll put some biscuits on and wake Uncle Fester up with the news! / s
Nope, #95. Browser twitched as an image loaded
It seems that Islamic males are manly men--given to raping women for any excuse at all and shooting them in the back. Yes, indeed, manly men.
So.....basically by murdering this nun, the muslim morons once again proved the Pope was correct with the comments that he made.
Pigs
Islam is a religion of murder being practiced by mental incompetents prone to fits of childlike temper tantrums.I hope to see the world turn to anger for these murders.
"She was shot three times in the back."These killers are just some of the people John McCain and the Democrats are extending legal protections to.
Bingo!!!!
Do you think McCain has finally done himself in as a serious contender for the WH? Sure, he's got oodles of money and staffers hired from the last campaign, but who in God's name would vote for him? A side note, but serious. The high school in a nearby town in Eastern MA. has finally put in a buzzer security system. You have to be buzzed in. Up until this week, you were supposed to stop at the main desk and get a visitor badge (if you felt like it.) (Lessons of Beslan were forgotten.)
1. Her reward is not in this world
2. This is the nature of true missionary work. She is there to save souls, even incompetent corrupt ones.
You got that right.
In the unlikely event that McCain got the nomination (and I put the odds of that at less than 100-1), I would vote for Hillary, or Gore or any of them over McCain.
If the Republican Party nominated a traitor like McCain, or a free-speech-hater like McCain, it would signal to me that the Republican Party was dead and that the best thing would be to hasten to whatever depths the Demonrats want to take us so that, hopefully, out of the ashes, a new and better Conservative Party could emerge.
But that's all fantasy. McCain as the Republican nominee? It's not going to happen.
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