Interim government denies trying to kill Aydid

The Transitional National Government (TNG) has denied that it was attempting to kill faction leader Husayn Aydid in the recent fighting in Mogadishu. The director of information of the TNG, Abdirahman Dinari, told IRIN that the accusations made by the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC), a grouping of southern faction leaders opposed to the TNG, were “totally baseless”. Dinari said that the TNG’s sole interest and involvement in the incident had been to stop the fighting. “This was between Aydid and some businessmen”, and had nothing to do with the TNG, he said. In press statement from Baidoa, 240 km southwest of Mogadishu, on 12 May, one of the five co-chairmen of the SRRC accused the TNG of initiating the fighting which took place in Mogadishu on 11 and 12 May, and of trying to assassinate Aydid. The SRRC also accused the TNG of initiating “continuous provocative military acts”, and predicted that the the interim government would provoke “a new bloodbath”.