Somalia: Protesters vow not to give up their guns

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Hundreds of furious protesters crowded the streets of Mogadishu on Saturday, burning tires, smashing car windows and shouting that they will not give up their guns despite the government's call for total disarmament. At least two people were killed, including a 13-year-old boy, hospital official said. The violence exposed deep unrest in a city that is seeing its first legitimate governing force in more than a decade. Somali troops, backed by powerful Ethiopian soldiers and weapons, drove out a radical Islamic group last week that had been in control for six months. "We are protesting against the disarmament and the Ethiopian presence in the country. We cannot accept disarmament under occupation," Haeyle Abdulle Hussein, 23, told The Associated Press. "We will wage a holy war instead."