Somali gunmen attack police stations, 7 wounded

MOGADISHU, Jan 28 (Reuters) Gunmen fired rocket-propelled grenades at Mogadishu police stations in the latest of a wave of guerrilla-style ambushes on the government and its Ethiopian allies, residents said today.

The assailants -- whom the government says are remnants of an Islamist movement ousted from Mogadishu over the New Year -- also sprayed machine-gun fire at police guards.

At least seven people were wounded.

Government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said the perpetrators would be brought to justice: ''We will make sure such individuals are filtered from the society and apprehended.'' Leaflets circulating at the weekend in Mogadishu, and purporting to be from the defeated Somalia Islamic Courts Council (SICC), urged residents to avoid collaboration with Ethiopians or face ''losing lives and property''.

Ethiopia's military joined Somali government forces late last month in a two-week offensive that drove the Islamists out of strongholds in south Somalia they had held since June.

The Islamist fighters scattered to remote parts of the south, where they have taken a pounding from Ethiopian and US air-strikes.

But Islamist sources have vowed a long guerrilla war against the Ethiopian-backed interim government.

Dinari scoffed at the pamphlets, which heightened tensions in Mogadishu where killings and attacks have become virtually daily since the open warfare ended after the New Year.

''They did not even indicate their names,'' he said. ''This is cheap propaganda. It will not work. I urge the people to work with the government and in particular the police in order to protect their lives.'' Witnesses said assailants on two vehicles fired two rockets at Wardigley police station in south Mogadishu late yesterday, then opened up with machine-gun fire at officers on guard.

In a simultaneous strike, rockets were also fired at Howlwadag police station in the central business district.

''In Howlwadag, two policemen and three civilians were wounded while in Wardigley, a civilian and a policeman were injured. I don't know of any deaths,'' police officer Ali Nur told Reuters after visiting the scenes of the attacks.

MULTIPLE THREATS Although suspicion has fallen on hardcore remnants of the SICC, the government has other enemies including warlord and clan militias, plus criminals opposed to the restoration of order in the coastal capital.

Mogadishu is awash with military-class weapons.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told Reuters at the weekend a third of his troops in Somalia would be withdrawn by Sunday as part of a phased exit.

That increased the urgency for an African peacekeeping force to Somalia, which many diplomats see as the only way to prevent a dangerous power vacuum in the Horn of Africa nation.

President Abdullahi Yusuf's interim government, formed at peace talks in Kenya in late 2004, is the 14th attempt to restore central rule since the 1991 ouster of a dictator. It would be vulnerable without Ethiopia's military muscle.

In another headache for Yusuf, militia loyal to self-appointed local governor and warlord Mohamed Dheere were seen patrolling the streets of Jowhar at the weekend after the government excluded him from a team named to run the area.

Contacted by telephone, Dheere told Reuters he would hand over power in the rich agricultural area north of Mogadishu, but would not work with the new officials.

''It would have been better for the people of Jowhar to be left to appoint their heads,'' he said.

Reuters DKA GC1456