Somaliland official among three wounded in northern Somalia attack

Asked about if they captured the attackers, the Somaliland official said the security forces are tracing what he called the culprits who behind the cowardly attack.

Source:	(AHN)	Reporter:	Abdi Hajji Hussein
Location:	Las Anod, Somaliland, Somalia	Published:	April 30, 2011 12:01 pm EDT
Topics:	Unrest, Conflicts And War, Act Of Terror

On Friday night Unidentified masked men armed with pistols shot and wounded three people including a Somaliland police officer in the northern Somalia town of Las Anod , officials and witnesses said Saturday.
Jama Muse Awad, the deputy police chief of the disputed Sool region in northern Somalia came under attack while walking at the center of Las Anod, according to Abdullahi Hussein Ige, the executive director of Somaliland’s interior minister.
“At least two others, one of them was a woman, were wounded in the Friday night attack in Las Anod” Mr. Ige told BBC Somali Service.
“Though, the police officer has sustained a heavy gunshot wound to chest, he is in a hospital in Somaliland where he is recovering right now” he added.
Witnesses in the town said that assailants immediately escaped the scene soon after the attack.
Asked about if they captured the attackers, the Somaliland official said the security forces are tracing what the culprit.
He accused Sool, Sanaag and Ceyn (SCC) guerilla fighters, of plotting the attack. The SCC has not released any comments denying or admitting the responsibility of the attack.
Insecurity and assinations of Somaliland officials have recently increased in the Sool region.
On March 15, Gunmen armed with pistols shot down a high court judge in the region, Ahmed Suleiman Gelle, as he left a mosque in the center of the town of Las Anod.
Since Somaliland took control of the Sool region from Somalia's semi-autonomous state of Puntland in 2007, at least 12 Somaliland officials including police, military and intelligence officers have been killed in the region