By Elaine Donnelly
Extending sexual misconduct to combat units
Families in pickup trucks stacked with mattresses and jugs of water fled Col. Moammar Gadhafi's hometown of Sirte on Tuesday ahead of an expected new push by revolutionary forces to seize the city from die-hard loyalists of the fugitive leader.
The black Toyota SUV pulled up to the security checkpoint in Mogadishu. It was night, and 22-year-old Somali soldier Abdi Hassan recalls that he ordered the driver to switch the headlights off and the interior lights on.
A Kenyan man blinded in an al Qaeda attack on a U.S. Embassy 13 years ago said Sunday he welcomed news of the death of the mastermind who planned the blasts in Kenya and Tanzania, as Somalis said they hoped his death in their war-torn country would bring peace.
The al Qaeda operative behind the 1998 U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania has been killed, a Somali official said Saturday.
"I tried to leave earlier with my family, but Gadhafi's forces wouldn't let me," said Abdullah Mohammed, a 34-year-old computer engineer traveling with his wife, two daughters and son. "We managed to run away at dawn by taking back roads out of the city."
"But his killing was a victory for all Somali security forces," he said.
