Women's basketball event excites war-weary Somalis

MOGADISHU, Jan 25 (Reuters) - The stadium was packed for the women's basketball tournament in the bombed-out capital of staunchly Islamic Somalia.
Sports events are an unusual and welcome diversion for many residents of Mogadishu, torn by a two-year-old insurgency of suicide bombings, assassinations and indiscriminate artillery attacks.
But women's tournaments are even rarer in the Muslim country, attracting droves of eager spectators who filled the seats of the crumbling, colonial-era Italian stadium of Ex Lucino more than an hour before the start.
Supporters of two rival teams from the city -- Heegan and Horseed -- began cheering "Defeat them! Defeat them!", long before the players appeared on court for the semi-final of the contest that ends this week.
Faduma Yareey, 22, plays for Heegan. Two years ago when she started playing basketball, she told Reuters, some of her neighbours had condemned the practice as against the Koran.
"But now there are no problems," Yareey said, warming up for the game in a headscarf, soccer shirt and tracksuit pants.
"We're improving. We exercise every morning and afternoon, and we'd even like to play in the evening too if there was electricity. I hope we will make it to the national team."
The Horn of Africa nation is a failed state. Islamist insurgents have waged an Iraq-style campaign against a weak Western-backed interim government that has killed more than 16,000 civilians since the start of 2007.
Another 1 million Somalis have been driven from their homes.
The United States has long feared the anarchic country could become a safe haven for radical militants, and it says Somalia's hardline al Shabaab rebel group has close ties to al Qaeda.
But most Somalis are traditionally moderate Muslims -- there was huge pride last August when the impoverished nation was able to send a 10-strong team to the Olympic Games in Beijing.
Aden Yabrow Wiish, chairman of the Somali Basketball Federation, said the current competition was funded by Somali businessmen overseas who wanted to promote reconciliation.
"We are encouraging the youth to put down their weapons," he said. "You can see how the people ... are applauding their local neighbourhood teams, not their clans."
Venturing out onto the Mogadishu streets is dangerous, said Musa Abdullahi, one 68-year-old closely watching the game.
A suicide car bombing aimed at African Union peacekeepers missed its target on Saturday and killed at least 14 civilians.
Abdullahi said the near-daily bloodshed was dismaying.
"As an old man, it hurts my head to hear such stories," he told Reuters. "But when I come here and see young people playing sports together in such harmony, it is refreshing. That is how life should be. That is how I remember my upbringing here." (Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Charles Dick)