Somalia closes three Mogadishu broadcasters

MOGADISHU, June 6 (Reuters) The Somali government today again shut down three Mogadishu broadcasters, accusing them of supporting terrorism amid a virulent insurgency.

Under orders from Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi's office, Information Minister Madobe Nuunow Mohamed directed security agents to close down TV broadcasters HornAfrik and Shabelle media and the IQK Koranic radio and question their owners.

''HornAfrik, Shabelle and IQK are famous for creating tension, supporting terrorism, violating the freedom of the press and opposing the government,'' said the letter ordering the closures.

In January, the government closed the three broadcasters and the local office of Al Jazeera TV, just a few weeks after it took the city with Ethiopian military help from militant Islamists who wanted to rule Somalia by Islamic law.

The earlier closures drew international condemnation of the interim government, the 14th attempt at bringing order to the anarchy that has reigned in Somalia since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991.

A HornAfrik official said the accusations were unfounded.

''We have closed down our station,'' Ahmed Abdisalan, a founder member of HornAfrik, told Reuters. ''They say we have links with terrorism and that we are confusing people.'' HornAfrik in April accused the government of deliberately targeting its offices with artillery shells that wounded four people during operations to strike insurgents. The government denied it was an intentional attack.

In another incident, government troops arrested a top elder from Mogadishu's dominant Hawiye clan at his house for reasons that were not made public. The government had no immediate comment.

''I can confirm that Haji Abdi Iman, the chairman of the Hawiye council of elders, has been arrested by government troops. We don't know why they arrested him and where they are holding him,'' Hawiye clan spokesman Ahmed Diriye said.

The arrests come just days after two suicide bombings targeting the government and its allies struck the capital.

A Somali jihadist group claimed responsibility for one bombing, which killed seven people outside the heavily guarded home of Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi on Sunday. It was the fourth attempt on his life since he took office in late 2004.

Ethiopian and government troops have responded with house to house searches for weapons in two northern Mogadishu neighbourhoods sympathetic to the Islamists.

The Islamists, who Ethiopia, Somalia and the United States say have ties to al Qaeda, have vowed an Iraq-style insurgency until the interim government and Ethiopia are out of Somalia.

They have started using suicide bombers, roadside blasts and assassinations against the government and Ethiopia, and attacked African Union peacekeepers from Uganda stationed in the city.

Reuters AM RS2155