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Ethiopia denies involvement in the assassination of The British female teacher
Mogadishu (HAN) April 15, 2008- Somali Islamist leader charged  Ethiopian Secret agents inside Somalia were behind the deaths of the British female teacher and the Kenyan, who were killed in Beledweyne," Mukhtar Robbow, a spokesman for the Islamist rebels told HAN and reported to GeesskaAfrika Magazine. The killing was a blow to the Baladweyne District administration and the Somalis in the region.

The Ethiopian Military Base in Mogadishu on Monday denied involvement in the assassination of three foreigners have been killed in Beledweyne, rejecting allegations from the Islamist guerrilla group that Ethiopian was behind the killing.

"Ethiopia is looking into the reports from Somali TFG or from Baladweyne Regional Adminitartion regarding the deaths of the three foreigners, and is learning for the first time the details being reported in the media in the past few hours," Ethiopian  Prime Minister Malez Zenawi's office said.

"Ethiopia rejects the attempt by the Islamist terror groups to attribute to it any involvement in this incident. We have nothing further to add," read the statement form the Ethiopian FM spokesman. "These people make a lot of internal enemies. So it doesn't necessarily have to be Ethiopia or Al-shabab Islamist," Baladweyne Regional Administrator.

Ethiopia's defense ministry, declined comment, though Ethiopian military official said he learned of British female death from the Geeska Afrika Magazine news reports while on a working visit to the region - Southern Somalia.

Meanwhile: THE attack on the CMA CGM’s cruiseship Le Ponant and has brought the worsening piracy problems in Somalia sharply back into the limelight. The Somalia  Prime Minister Nur Adde's office said, the Islamic fighters loyal to Al-Shabaab, a terrorist group linked to al-Qaeda, shot the four people in an assault at the Hakab Private English School in the central Somali town of Beladwayne. “Local people are terrified because people who are involved in educating our people were killed last night,” local resident told us.

Al-Shabaab - known as the Islamic Youth Movement – is described by the U.S. as a “violent and brutal extremist group with a number of members affiliated with al-Qaeda.” It seems that the group became known for raids on Somali cities, as the violence is part of a dispute in central Somalia between Islamist militia and government troops backed by Ethiopian soldiers. Al Shabaab controlled the capital of Mogadishu and much of central and southern Somalia up to 2006. According to the AP, the Islamists regrouped in Eritrea, Ethiopia's principal enemy.

Sources: Geeska Afrika Magazine,  IGAD2020 and HAN staff Reporter In Mogadishu

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