500 Guns Seized: Somalia Tries To Disarm Mogadishu

In this photo taken Sunday, July 27, 2014, African Union (AU) peacekeepers stand near a cache of weapons recovered from a garage in Mogadishu, Somalia. An official says that Somalia's government has launched a new disarmament campaign, that has netted some 500 guns during four raids, which is being carried out because officials fear that weapons could fall into the hands of al-Qaeda-linked fighters. (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)

Somalia's government has launched a new disarmament campaign that has netted some 500 guns and sparked gun battles in a capital that is awash with weapons, said officials who want to get rid of the weapons before they fall into the hands of al-Qaeda-linked fighters, according to AP.

Gun markets have a long history in Mogadishu, a city once ruled by clan warlords. Disarmament campaigns, run both by weak Somali governments and by the U.S. military in the early 1990s, have had limited success. But the government is trying again.

Troops raided a military official's home and discovered guns that authorities said were going to be sold to al-Shabab rebels. The official was arrested after a heavy firefight, said Mohamed Yusuf, the spokesman for Somalia's national security ministry. Security forces also raided a garage belonging to the former anti-U.S. warlord Osman Atto, who died last year, seizing rocket-propelled grenades and bombs, Yusuf said.