• Somali men carry the body of a Syrian doctor for transport to Madina hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia, Wednesday, Dec. 18, 2013. A Somali official says suspected al-Qaida-linked militants have ambushed a convoy carrying doctors near Somali capital, killing six people, three of them foreigners. Capt. Mohamed Hussein, a senior Somali police commander, said Wednesday the convoy came under attack in a semi-forested area outside Mogadishu, while on their way to give medical assistance to patients at a hospital. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)
Mogadishu: Fighters in Somalia shot dead three Syrian doctors and their three Somali colleagues on Wednesday as they travelled to a hospital outside the capital Mogadishu, an AFP reporter said.
Their bullet-riddled bodies were carried into Mogadishu’s Madina hospital after the attack on road leading from the capital to Afgoye, a town some 30km northwest of the capital.
Doctors at the hospital said the foreigners killed were Syrians. “We do not know the motive behind the attack. This has shocked us and made us very sad. It is very unfortunate to see our colleagues being murdered for unknown reasons,” said Abdul Rahman Mohammad Fiqi, the director of the hospital where the doctors worked.
“The Syrian doctors fled their homeland because of the civil war and came to us voluntarily to help and work with us as doctors,” said Fiqi.
One Syrian doctor was also wounded in the attack, which took place as the group travelled down the road towards Afgoye, a former stronghold of the Al Qaida-linked Al Shabab insurgents, before they were driven from the town in May 2012.
However, a senior Al Shabab official said they did not carry out the attack, although their fighters have often carried out shootings, bombings and suicide commando raids against government and international targets, including aid workers.
The region is awash with guns and multiple armed men and militia forces operate in the area, one of the most dangerous places in the world for aid workers.
Somalia has been riven by civil war since the collapse of the central government in 1991.
The Al Shabab have been driven out of Somalia’s major towns by a UN-mandated African Union force (Amisom).
However the Al Shabab still controls large swathes of southern Somalia as well as pockets of Puntland.
On Monday, a new chief of the AU force took over command, vowing he would lead the 17,700-strong force in a fresh offensive against the Al Shabab, with over 4,000 reinforcements expected.
With extra troops, “Amisom will be able to expand its area of responsibilities to liberate other locations, which are currently in the hands of Al Shabab,” said new commander Silas Ntigurirwa, a Burundian general.
Al Shabab claimed responsibility for an bloody attack in September on a shopping mall in Nairobi in retaliation for Kenya’s military intervention in Somalia.
Last week, 13 people were killed in four attacks in Kenya during week-long celebrations to mark the country’s 50th anniversary of independence.
Source: Gulf News
THANK ALLAH THE GREAT I AM NOT SOMALI. I AM APROUD PATRIOTIC SOMALILANDER FROM THE GREAT LAND OF REPUBLIC OF SOMALILAND. BELONGING TO A GRAET NATION OF SOMALILAND REPUBLIC FILLS ME WITH SELFRESPECT, AND ENHANCES MY HUMAN DEGNITY BECAUSE, UNBLIKE THE WILD PREHISTORICAL SUBHUMAN CREATURES KNOWN FOR LACK OF BETTER WORD SOMALI (HAWIYE AFAR-QOOBLE = HAWIYE THE DONKEYS AND DAAROOD DOOFAAR = DAAROOD THE BIGS) MY NATION OF SOMALILAND WON BOTH WAR BY INFLICTING HISTORICAL DEFEAT ON DICTATOR SIYAAD BARRE AND HIS DAAROOD MILITAS AND WENT AHEAD AND BUILT A STATE OUT OF THE RUINS OF WAR, WHILE WE ESTABLISHED A PEACFUL DEMOCRATIC STATE UNIQUE IN AFRICA AND THE MIDDELEAST, SOMALI WILD TRIBES SPENT TWENT THREE YEARS SLAUGHTERING EACH OTHER AND ASKING THE WORLD FOR HANDOUTS. WE SOMALILANDERS HAVE NOTHING TO DO WITH THOSE SUBHUMAN CREATURES OF THE FAILED STATE OF SOMALIA. LONG LIVE SNM. LONG LIVE THE ALL PATRIOTIC AND GLORIOUS SOMALILANDERS.
I think you are sick and in need of a immediate help for writing all those garbage, unlike you I will not disrespect Isaaq bc my lovely wife hails from the north and I believe you do not speak for the Isaaq clan or SNM, You are a coward collecting welfare somewhere in the West, having said that its is a sad day for Somalia that innocent doctors are killed, may almighty god rest their soul in peace.
Dawlad of course ur are somali of Somaliland just like somali of Djibouti Kil5 or NFD .but not somalian from Somalia or.Djiboutian or Somalilander or Somali kenyan and Ethiopian. Make differenc between etnic and nationality.
Beside.what Syria doctor are in Hell Somalia while their.own.country burn . Unbelievable.
Somalia is burning inferno. The FGS is hapless and desperately floating inside
hell inferno volcano.
Cheers.
hornid, hornid, hornid.
speak only for your self and GO TO HELL. WE ARE NOT SOMALIS WE ARE PATRIOTIC SOMALILANDERS.
stupid we know your not Somali but Isaaq SLAVE from Ethiopian.
These innocent Doctors who were killed in the line of duty by the coward salafi Al shabaab terrorists we the people of Somalia pray for you may Allah swt forgives you'r sins, accepts good deeds and grants you to heaven.
And to those salafi terrorists may you rot and burn in hell.
Sad indeed and my heart goes with the families of these Doctors.