SOMALIA: Faction leader's deputy killed

NAIROBI, 14 March 2002 (IRIN) - A senior aide to Muse Sudi Yalahow, a Mogadishu faction leader, was killed on Wednesday near his home in Medina district, southwest Mogadishu, a local source told IRIN on Thursday. Abdiqadir Nur Fiyambro, one of Yalahow's deputies, was reportedly killed by gunmen from the Daud subclan of the main Abgal clan. Yalahow, who is himself a member of the Daud, belongs to the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC), which is opposed to the Transitional National Government. According to the source, Fiyambro, who belonged to the Hawadle clan of Hiran Region, central Somalia, was murdered in a revenge killing after Hawadle gunmen shot dead a Daud militiaman who had raped a Hawadle girl. "The Daud then killed Fiyambro in revenge," the source said. Humanitarian sources in Mogadishu have dismissed speculation that the attack was politically motivated, aimed at undermining Yalahow's position. "This was a purely clan-related killing, and has nothing to do with politics," one source said. Yalahow is currently said to be attending a meeting of the SRRC in Ethiopia.