Violent Tribal Confrontations in Rada’a [Archives:2000/11/Front Page]

In the midst of the continuing battles taking place in Rada’a, Ryam tribe recently fired several houses in Abass village with R.B.G weapons. The shelling resulted in killing of four persons, injuring 17, and destroying four houses. The Abass tribe retaliated with heavy shelling on the villages inhabited by the Ryam tribe. The details of casualties are not known.
Military forces were sent to that place to track down the Abass tribe. A soldier was killed in the encounter. More than 30 families escaped to mountains and caves to protect themselves. A fact finding committee which visited those villages found quite horrifying. When they asked people there about the reason behind the imbroglio, they said that the one who was behind this trouble is one of the military commanders. Those people further said that this leader took up a false stance in one area. His judgement was in violation of 20 year old a previous judgement.
Some officials allegedly are sympathetic to the other party. They believe that the military campaign was directed against one particular tribe, and soldiers plundered prisoners weapons and Qat farms.

The commander of the military campaign denied all the above mentioned charges, but a soldier said that they had the right to do all that. Some military sources have however opined that the campaign aimed at recovering heavy weapons from those tribes. Asked whether if the other tribe has since surrendered, they answered that it was more responsive, and people gave up their arms weapons immediately.
There are some sheiks as mediators to solve the tension between the two tribes. They said that they could not appease the aggressive party, and that there was hope that they would reach a solution. One of the sheiks pointed out that the area registered from more than 375 clashes, but the authorities did not bother about solving those problems.
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