TWO SOMALIS KILLED FOR WATCHING WORLD CUP

By SALAD DUHUL, Associated Press Writer Wed Jul 5, 2:58 PM ET

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Radical Islamic militia fighters in Somalia shot and killed two people who were watching a banned World Cup soccer broadcast, a radio station reported Wednesday.

The hard-line Muslim fighters, who have banned watching television, opened fire after a crowd of teenagers defied their orders to leave a hall where a businessman was showing Tuesday's Germany-Italy match on satellite television, according to Shabelle Radio, an independent local station. It said the businessman and a teenage girl were killed.

Hard-line Muslim fighters, who wrested control of the Somali capital from warlords in June, have forbidden people from watching television or movies in line with their strict interpretation of Islam.

The militants of the Supreme Islamic Courts Council, who have established control in much of the south, have recently moved into parts of central Somalia, including the Mudug region where Tuesday's shooting occurred.

The leader of their group, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, has spent the past weeks in central Somalia recruiting fighters in his clan's native region.

Washington has accused the Islamic group of harboring al-Qaida leaders responsible for deadly 1998 bombings at the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

Somalia has been without an effective government since largely clan-based warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned on each other, dividing the nation into a patchwork of rival fiefdoms.

A U.N.-backed transitional government is established only in the southern town of Baidoa, where leaders on Wednesday met officials from a regional East African group, the African Union, European Union and the Arab League to discuss plans for deploying peacekeepers.

The 24-member delegation held talks with President Abdullahi Yusuf, Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi and parliamentary Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden.

The team is expected to visit Mogadishu Thursday for talks with the Islamic group that controls the city and opposes the deployment of peacekeepers.