Pope link to nun's murder?
2006-09-17 16:20
Mogadishu - Gunmen killed an Italian nun
at a children's hospital in Mogadishu on Sunday in an attack
that drew immediate speculation of links to Muslim anger over
the pope's recent remarks on Islam.
The Catholic nun's guard also died from pistol shots in the
latest attack on foreign personnel in volatile Somalia.
The assassinations were a blow to Mogadishu's new Islamist
rulers' attempt to prove they have pacified one of the world's
most lawless cities since chasing out warlords in June.
The bodyguard died instantly, but the nun, from the
Missionaries of the Consolation order based in Nepi near Rome,
was rushed into an operating theatre after being hit by three or
four bullets in the chest, stomach and back.
"She died in the hospital treatment room," doctor Ali
Mohamed Hassan told Reuters. "She was shot outside the hospital,
going to her house just across the gate."
Trained nurses
A nun from the Missionaries order identified her as sister
Leonella Sgorbati, born in 1940, in Piacenza in northern Italy.
In Somalia since 2002, she trained nurses at the SOS
Kindergarten hospital.
The Italian government said the nun and two other Italian
nuns working with her had been repeatedly advised to leave
Somalia, which was formerly ruled by Italy.
Sunday's death provoked scenes of mourning at the hospital.
"I was in class when I heard about six to eight shots, I ran
out and saw sister bleeding," Fatuma Hassan, 21, told Reuters.
"We're so sad. It's a big loss."
Two suspects were later arrested by Islamist militiamen, but
there were no details of their identity.
Pope link?
One top Islamist source told Reuters there was "a very high
possibility" the attack was linked to controversy over a recent
speech by Pope Benedict which angered Muslims who thought it
showed their religion to be innately violent.
Vatican spokesperson Federico Lombardi told Italian news agency
ANSA he hoped the nun's death was an isolated event, but feared
it was "the fruit of violence and irrationality arising from the
current situation (of Pope), which is without motive or reason".
But in Italy, a nun from Sgorbati's order who asked not to
be named said: "We have no reason to suspect any link."
She added: "There were no threats, we had no reason to
expect something like this, though of course there are risks."