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- WORLD, Page 51World NotesSOMALIAPlunging into Anarchy
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- The government has lost all control in Mogadishu, and chaos
- has taken over. Armed mobs, some of them renegade soldiers from
- President Mohammed Siad Barre's army, roam the city shooting
- and looting. Troops shouting "Allah Akbar!" (God is great!)
- invaded the Roman Catholic cathedral, drove the congregation
- out with tear gas and truncheons, then set fire to the
- building. An Italian priest who witnessed the attack said many
- worshipers were killed.
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- As rebel fighters from the United Somali Congress called in
- reinforcements, the U.S., Italy and France flew 800 diplomats
- and other foreign residents to safety in separate rescue
- missions last week. Soldiers looted the American embassy as
- soon as the last helicopter took off. Reported Italian
- Ambassador Mario Sica, who left Saturday: "The city is being
- sacked as in the days of Genghis Khan."
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- Holed up with the remnants of his army, Siad Barre offered
- again last week to negotiate with the three main insurgent
- groups that have overturned his 21-year dictatorship. A rebel
- spokesman in Rome said they "would not be that stupid."
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