Clash brews as Somali rivals vie to rescue Germans
BOSASSO/HARGEISA, 10 July 2008 (Reuters)– (Reuters) - Troops from two feuding regions of remote northern Somalia were bracing for a possible showdown on Thursday as they compete to rescue four German tourists held hostage there by pirates.
The Germans — two men, a woman and a child — were kidnapped in Yemen 17 days ago. They are now held in thickly wooded mountains near Las Qoray town, in a disputed region between Somaliland and Puntland.
“We have surrounded the pirates,” Gurey Osman Salah, the Somaliland commander in Las Qoray, told Reuters by telephone.
“We will not allow anyone near the area and we will not hesitate to use force.”
The move has angered the Puntland authorities, who withdrew their forces last week in order to avoid a clash with Somaliland troops, after local elders called for space to negotiate with the pirates and persuaded both sides to pull back.
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