By Sahal Abdulle
March 24, 2007
"The plane was shot down," Transport Ministry spokeswoman Kseniya Perestoronina said in Minsk, adding that the large Ilyushin plane, in Somalia to assist struggling African peacekeepers, was hit at a height of 150 metres (500 feet).
If confirmed, it would be the most spectacular strike yet by rebels fighting the Somali government, their Ethiopian military allies and the African Union (AU) force since the start of 2007.
Both a local Somali radio and an Islamist Web site said a missile hit the Russian-made Ilyushin -- used by a Belarussian firm -- just after takeoff from Mogadishu on Friday afternoon.
Witnesses who saw the plane burning in the sky and then crashing could not confirm it had been shot first.
Somali Interior Minister Mohamed Mahamud Guled said the incident had the hallmarks of a technical fault, although investigations were under way to confirm exactly what happened.
"The plane took off at around five o'clock and as soon as it reached 10,000 feet altitude, the pilot reported an engine problem in engine number two and said he would turn back to the airport," he told a news conference in Mogadishu.
"We are waiting for technical experts," he added, without specifically ruling out an attack on the plane prior to ascent.
Only one of the 11 on board, who were seven crew members and four engineers, initially survived the crash. He was found wandering among corpses and wreckage, but then died in hospital.
DEEPENING VIOLENCE
The plane had brought a team to fix another Ilyushin lying damaged at Mogadishu airport after flying in peacekeepers. That plane caught fire on the runway in an incident the AU said was a technical fault, but Islamists said was a missile attack.
Friday's crash came after three days of the worst violence since a war over the New Year that ousted militant Islamists in charge of south Somalia for the previous six months.
Insurgents believed to be a mixture of Islamists and disgruntled clan militia have been striking daily against the government, Ethiopian soldiers, and contingent of 1,200 Ugandan soldiers in the vanguard of the African force.
At least 20 people have died and hundreds more have been wounded in the fighting since Wednesday.
Thousands have fled Mogadishu.
Residents say the latest violence coincides with a government-led disarmament drive resisted by Mogadishu's dominant Hawiye clan, many of whom regard it as an attempt by the president, from the rival Darod clan, to marginalise them.
President Abdullahi Yusuf's interim government -- the 14th attempt to establish central rule to Somalia since 1991 -- says it wants to secure the gun-infested city before a reconciliation conference scheduled for April 16.
Interior Minister Guled urged the plane's owners and families of the victims to arrange removal of the bodies or allow their burial in Somalia quickly.
"We do not have any means of preserving the bodies," he said. Most Somalis are Muslims and bury their dead as soon as possible in accordance with Islam.
- Additional reporting by Andrei Makhovsky in Minsk
Source: Reuters, Mar 24, 2007