Posted on 01/12/2003 6:09:15 AM PST by knighthawk
MOGADISHU: Militiamen allegedly hired by a Somali businessman stormed a radio and TV station in Mogadishu on Friday night and shut it down after it reported the trader had been mentioned in a book on a group linked to terrorism, station officials said on Saturday.
The privately-owned Hornafrik Radio and Television station quoted a book by an Ethiopian author in which it is alleged that Mohamed Daylaf, a wealthy Mogadishu trader, has business relations with a militant Somali Islamic group known as Al-Ittihad al-Islamia.
The United States has charged the group has links to al-Qaeda, blamed for the attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001.
Ahmed Abdulsalam, a senior editor in Hornafrik, said that the attackers forced the staff to switch off equipment and that both the radio and television were off the air for about six hours.
The siege was lifted after mediation by local elders, according to Abdulsalam.
He said the gunmen were armed with machineguns, rocket launchers and grenades.
Local newspapers and human rights activists condemned the action.
Somali has been without a nationally recognised government and torn apart by factional warfare since the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
Jennings would wet his pants and Brokaw would be "assuming the position."
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