Somali group says will target passenger planes

Feb 12, 2007 (MOGADISHU) — A group that has claimed responsibility for recent attacks in the Somali capital Mogadishu Monday warned it would shoot down planes using Mogadishu International Airport.

“They have to know that the resistance will shoot down planes that use Mogadishu airport. All the necessary equipment for carrying out this operation is in our hands,” according to the statement by the Popular Resistance Movement in the Land of the Two Migrations.

The statement was dated Sunday and posted on the Islamic courts’ Web site.

Somalia’s deputy defense minister blamed the recent violence on remnants of the radical Islamic movement that was pushed out of Mogadishu and parts of the country’s south earlier this year. The Islamic group has been accused of harboring al-Qaida suspects, which it denies.

The Islamic movement, which still has support in Mogadishu, has vowed to wage an Iraq-style insurgency, and attacks in the capital have happened nearly daily over the past month.

Earlier Monday, Somali Information Minister Madow Nunow Mohamed said the Cabinet has approved an antiterrorism law, which now must be signed by the president. The law calls for “life imprisonment, execution or confiscation of property” of those convicted of organizing, carrying out or funding terrorist acts.

(AP)