Officials said Al Qaida has been training suicide and other attackers
for Al Qaida missions throughout the Middle East. They said Somalia was
being employed for attacks in such countries as Kenya, Somalia and Yemen.
“One mortar landed at the airport when Payne’s plane was due to fly and five others after he left and no one was hurt,” a police officer at Mogadishu airport, was quoted as saying by the London Times.
Payne, a veteran New Jersey Democrat who is chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus and head of the House of Representatives subcommittee on Africa.
In March 2009, a suicide bomber blew himself up in Yemen in an attack
that killed four South Korean tourists. Officials said the bomber,
identified as Abdul Rahman Mehdi Al Ajbari, had been trained in Somalia.
Officials said Al Ajbari left Yemen in January 2009 and underwent two
months of training in neighboring Somalia. They said Al Ajbari joined the
stream of Yemenis who arrived in Somalia to work with Al Qaida
and the ruling Muslim militia.
Yemen has also become a major base for Al Qaida for attacks in neighboring
Saudi Arabia. Officials said Al Qaida preferred to train its members in
Somalia to avoid monitoring and arrest by Yemeni authorities.
