2007年VOA标准英语-Officials in Somalia Region Report Arrival of I

By Alisha Ryu
Nairobi
01 June 2007

Officials in the semi-autonomous Somali region of Puntland have confirmed local reports that a group of armed fighters, believed to be remnants of Somalia's defeated Islamist movement, arrived in a small coastal¹ settlement near the tip of Somalia on Wednesday. VOA Correspondent Alisha Ryu in our East Africa Bureau in Nairobi reports it is not clear whether the fighters are still in the area or have moved on.

Somalia

Puntland's Information Minister Mohamed Abdulrahman Banga tells VOA that heavily armed men in two fishing boats came ashore² early Wednesday at a settlement called Baar-gaal.

"They were sailing," he said. "They had their own small boats. We do not know exactly where they come from - maybe from Ras Kamboni, Mombasa, or somewhere else."

Minister Banga says because the boats had come to Baar-gaal from the south, most people in the area believe that the men are Islamist fighters, who were driven out of Mogadishu five months ago by Ethiopian troops supporting Somalia's secular³ interim⁴ government.

Hundreds of Islamist fighters and their leaders are believed to have fled down to the swampy⁵, densely-forested Islamist stronghold of Ras Kamboni near the Somali-Kenyan border.

In January, the United States launched at least two air strikes in Ras Kamboni on a tip that several al-Qaida terrorists, who had been in Mogadishu under the protection of radical⁶ leaders within the defeated Islamic Courts Union, were hiding there.

The terrorists were wanted in connection with the U.S. Embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. The air strikes failed to kill them and the al-Qaida operatives, as well as their Somali allies, remain at large.

It is still not clear how many men actually landed in Baar-gaal on Wednesday. Some residents have reported seeing about a dozen. Others, including the local governor, say as many as 35 men, most of whom were not Somalis, landed and clashed briefly⁷ with a small number of Puntland troops stationed in the area.

The governor, Muse⁸ Gelle, told Mogadishu-based Shabelle Radio on Thursday that the men were foreign Islamic extremists, who had come to Puntland to agitate⁹ the local people. He said that Puntland troops were patrolling around Baar-gaal, looking for them.

But Puntland's information minister says the fighters were most likely on their way further north, possibly to Yemen, but rough seas forced them to come ashore.

He says all of the fighters have escaped and no one knows where they are now.

1 coastal   

adj.海岸的，沿海的，沿岸的

参考例句：

• The ocean waves are slowly eating away the coastal rocks.大海的波浪慢慢地侵蚀着岸边的岩石。
• This country will fortify the coastal areas.该国将加强沿海地区的防御。

2 ashore   

adv.在(向)岸上，上岸

参考例句：

• The children got ashore before the tide came in.涨潮前，孩子们就上岸了。
• He laid hold of the rope and pulled the boat ashore.他抓住绳子拉船靠岸。

3 secular   

n.牧师，凡人；adj.世俗的，现世的，不朽的

参考例句：

• We live in an increasingly secular society.我们生活在一个日益非宗教的社会。
• Britain is a plural society in which the secular predominates.英国是个世俗主导的多元社会。

4 interim   

adj.暂时的，临时的；n.间歇，过渡期间

参考例句：

• The government is taking interim measures to help those in immediate need.政府正在采取临时措施帮助那些有立即需要的人。
• It may turn out to be an interim technology.这可能只是个过渡技术。

5 swampy   

adj.沼泽的，湿地的

参考例句：

• Malaria is still rampant in some swampy regions.疟疾在一些沼泽地区仍很猖獗。
• An ox as grazing in a swampy meadow.一头牛在一块泥泞的草地上吃草。

6 radical   

n.激进份子，原子团，根号；adj.根本的，激进的，彻底的

参考例句：

• The patient got a radical cure in the hospital.病人在医院得到了根治。
• She is radical in her demands.她的要求十分偏激。

7 briefly   

adv.简单地，简短地

参考例句：

• I want to touch briefly on another aspect of the problem.我想简单地谈一下这个问题的另一方面。
• He was kidnapped and briefly detained by a terrorist group.他被一个恐怖组织绑架并短暂拘禁。

8 muse   

n.缪斯（希腊神话中的女神），创作灵感

参考例句：

• His muse had deserted him,and he could no longer write.他已无灵感，不能再写作了。
• Many of the papers muse on the fate of the President.很多报纸都在揣测总统的命运。

9 agitate   

vi.(for,against)煽动，鼓动；vt.搅动

参考例句：

• They sent agents to agitate the local people.他们派遣情报人员煽动当地的民众。
• All you need to do is gently agitate the water with a finger or paintbrush.你只需要用手指或刷子轻轻地搅动水。