3/22/2009

MOGADISHU(Sh. M. Network)--Five dead bodies that the Ethiopian soldiers killed months ago have been found in a mass grave in Aslubta compound outside Mogadishu, a former base of Ethiopian troops, witnesses and officials said on Sunday.

Relatives of the dead bodies told to the reporters that the five bodies were all young men who were traveling in a car in front of the compound when the Ethiopian troops captured and killed them.

They said that two of them were brothers and described the incident as a massacre by the Ethiopian troops during their two-year of ill-fated occupation in Somalia.

The Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia in late 2006 to oust the Islamic Courts Union that controlled much of south and centrla Somalia.

The Ethiopian troops left Somalia in mid January this year.

A relative of those killed who talked to reporters alongside the mass grave identified the men as: Nur Omar farey, Abdi Hashi Ga’al, his brother Abas Hashi Ga’al, Abdullahi Mohamed Roble and their driver Tahliil Salad.

Sheik Abdirahim Isse Adow, a spokesman for the Islamic Courts Union, who visited the mass grave, told reporters that his fighters will investigate all formerly Ethiopian-based compounds and surrounding areas so that the remains of other slain civilians may be searched.

“We know Ethiopians caused heavy damages on our people and this is part of their massacre against Somali civilians,” said Sheik Abdirahim.

l-Shabab Islamists discovered 13 dead bodies a week ago from former Ethiopian military base in Baidoa.

By Ahmednor Mohamed Farah