Aydiid is Dead

MOGADISHU, Somalia (Reuter) - Somali faction leader Mohamed Farah Aideed, whose militiamen plagued a U.N. peacekeeping force, has died from bullet wounds, aides said on Friday. His death raised hopes for a possible end to violence in the devastated Horn of Africa country.

Aideed died at at his home in southern Mogadishu on Thursday afternoon from bullet wounds, aides said.

He was reliably reported to have been wounded during fighting with rival militiamen on Wednesday last week, but his Washington spokesman said he had been shot and wounded by assassins at the weekend.

Witnesses said the faction leader had been hit by two bullets -- one in the stomach and one in the shoulder. His aides had brought in an Italian doctor to treat Aideed. He will be buried after Moslem prayers on Friday in southern Mogadishu, according to a radio station operated by the faction of the late general, whose militiamen defeated a U.N. peacekeeping force in 1993.

The city was calm after the radio announced the news of his death, with few people on the streets of the capital and no reports of any fighting.

Aideed's radio, monitored in Nairobi, said leaders of the USC-SNA (United Somali Congress-Somali National Alliance) had appointed a 30-member committee to take charge of political and military issues among his followers.

The group hoped to announce a replacement for their leader soon, the radio said, adding:
``The armed forces should be vigilant and go on full alert and continue their defence and security duties while confining themselves to their current positions.''

Aideed's Washington spokesman, Ahmed Mohamed Dahman, told the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that his leader was killed as part of an international plot.

``It was a conspiracy by a certain group...who fired on him. They were in the services of an international conspiracy,'' he said.

Asked if Aideed was killed by forces loyal to his main rival, north Mogadishu faction leader Ali Mahdi Mohamed, Dahman said this was not the case.

``They were forces against Aideed and his ideals. His supporters had always been protecting him.''

But other Somalis and relief workers said it was clear Aideed was badly injured in clan fighting last week in south Mogadishu against his arch-rivals Osman Hassan Ali Atto and Mohamed Ali Mahdi.

An aid official said prospects for peace in Somalia had greatly improved with the death of Aideed. He was a thorn in the side of many peace plans, including a U.N. effort in 1993 and 1994. Aideed's supporters called the peacekeepers a criminal force responsible for killing up to 14,000 Somalis.

``Normally one should feel sad when someone dies, but it's difficult. He has been responsible for so many other people dying,'' said a senior aid official who blamed Aideed for much of the continued trouble in the Horn of Africa country.

He said the death opened the way for a possible end to Somalia's five-year-old civil war.

Another senior international aid official said the death was likely to trigger a ``jostle for power'' in the short term, but could benefit ordinary Somalis.

``For organisations such as the United Nations and European Union, his death certainly means the death of the major bogeyman,'' the official said.