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Battling explosives: Somali police struggle to stop deadly attacks in Mogadishu
By ABDI GULED
Associated Press
MOGADISHU, Somalia — A Somali police officer is warned on his walkie-talkie that a suspicious car is approaching in the pitch darkness. Alerted, police at the partially-lit checkpoint immediately stop incoming cars, frisk passengers and search for explosives.
However, some cars had already passed through unrestricted and tension spreads among the jittery soldiers, who are chewing khat, leaves that are stimulants. They say they don’t want a bomb-laden vehicle to pass through their check-point and then explode in Mogadishu.
The KM4 junction is the seaside capital’s busiest intersection and a hub that links key government centers. It’s one of the most strategic checkpoints for the city, yet the police at KM4 say they lack essential equipment to check the hundreds of cars that cross there each hour.
Mogadishu has regained a measure of stability since 2011 when the Islamic extremist rebels of al-Shabab were pushed out of the city with an estimated population of 2.5 million. African Union troops and the Somali army now control all parts of the city, but the rebels continue to carry out sporadic terrorist bombings at government offices, restaurants and other gathering spots.
To try to prevent the violent attacks, the Somali police have roadblocks at key points around the city. At the KM4 junction, government vehicles, African Union convoys and civilian traffic come together at the dusty junction, putting pressure on the troops deployed there.
The troops don’t have metal detectors or other equipment to search cars. And they are missing another important tool: sniffer dogs. Although the canines are very good at finding explosives, the use of sniffer dogs seems to be an unattainable dream in Somalia, where the conservative Muslim population reject sniffer dogs because touching them is “haram” (sinful).
During car searches, some of the passing drivers and passengers had to show identification while others passed unchecked. After failing to find the suspicious car, the exhausted soldiers relaxed a bit, leaving few fellow soldiers to watch the flow of vehicles that went by without being searched.
“It’s really challenging, we regularly search cars, yet that can’t fully stop the terror,” said Osman Ali, a police officer, continually listening to his raucous walkie-talkie. “It’s not something new, it’s a global problem.”
As the al-Qaida-linked al-Shabab militants continue attacks against key targets in the capital, security services work hard to stop them, deploying many soldiers across the seaside capital to maintain security.
Somalia’s security forces, helped by the African Union forces, have succeeded in bringing relative stability for one of the world’s most dangerous cities, which suffered through chaotic violence for more than 20 years.