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25 Jun 2009 07:37:18 GMT
Source: Reuters * Islamist insurgents amputate hands, legs * Four teenagers sentenced to punishment for robbery MOGADISHU, June 25 (Reuters) - Somalia's hardline al Shabaab insurgents
cut a hand and a leg each off four teenagers on Thursday as punishment
for robbery, the first such amputations by the rebels who follow a
strict version of sharia law.
Al Shabaab is seen as a proxy for al Qaeda in Somalia and includes
foreign jihadists. It has carried out executions, floggings and
single-limb amputations before, mainly in the southern Somali port of
Kismayu. The insurgents are battling to oust the government of President Sheikh
Sharif Ahmed, who is a moderate Islamist, and control most of southern
Somalia and parts of the Horn of Africa nation's capital. "Their right hands and left legs have been cut off. They are due to be
taken away by ambulance now for treatment," Mohamed Noh, a resident who
was watching the punishment told Reuters. "They were screaming." Al Shabaab's strict practices have shocked many Somalis, who are
traditionally moderate Muslims, although residents give the insurgents
credit for restoring order to regions they control. "We have carried out this sentence under the Islamic religion and we
will punish like this everyone who carries out these acts," al Shabaab
official Sheikh Ali Mohamud Fidow told reporters. International rights group Amnesty International had condemned the
sentence imposed by an Islamic court in the Suqa Holaha area of the
capital on Monday, saying the teenagers had no lawyer and were not
allowed to appeal. The teenagers were accused of stealing mobile phones and other belongings. Another witness, Abdi Hassan, said he vomited when he say the
amputations: "It was very terrifying to watch." Violence from the Islamist-led insurgency has worsened this month, with
a minister, the Mogadishu police chief, and a legislator all killed. The
government, which controls little but a few parts of the capital, has
declared a state of emergency. With reports of foreign jihadists streaming into Somalia, western
security services are frightened Osama bin Laden's al Qaeda network may
get a grip on the failed Horn of Africa state that has been without
central government for 18 years. (Writing by David Clarke; editing by
Alison Williams)
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