SOMALIA/UGANDA: Six wounded in series of mortar attacks; Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) sends military hardware

Record ID: 352345

  • Title: SOMALIA/UGANDA: Six wounded in series of mortar attacks; Uganda People's Defence Forces (UPDF) sends military hardware
  • Date: 3rd March 2007
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Somali) INJURED WOMAN SHUKRI ABDULLAHI, SAYING: "When I heard the first bang I ran outside looking for safety but when I was at the gate the second one hit near to me and my brother, both of us were injured and brought to hospital."
  • Embargoed: 18th March 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: War / Fighting,Defence / Military
  • Reuters ID: LVA2WRWCW2CGPCV448SM4G4SB8HP
  • Story Text: Three mortar bombs fell in a suburb of central Mogadishu on Friday (March 2), hitting a restaurant, a house and a minibus. Six people were wounded in the attack.
    The assault happened a day after gunmen shot dead three people at the house of the director of Mogadishu's port, the latest in a series of guerrilla attacks in the capital.
    Colow Badil, a local resident described two of the attacks.
    "When the first mortar hit near the restaurant at the junction two people were injured seriously. The second one hit near the telecommunications office and four other people were injured including in this house," Badil said
    The insurgents who, on an almost daily basis, target a joint force of government troops and their Ethiopian allies, are thought to be a mix of Islamist guerrillas and clan militia fighting for control of the capital.
    The injured were taken to Madina hospital for treatment.
    One woman, Shukri Abdullahi said she was scrambling for safety when she was hurt.
    "When I heard the first bang I ran outside looking for safety but when I was at the gate the second one hit near to me and my brother, both of us were injured and brought to hospital," said Shukri.
    Backed by Ethiopian soldiers, weapons and tanks, government troops ousted rival Islamist rulers from their strongholds in Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia in a two-week war.
    Mogadishu, like the rest of Somalia, has been deprived of effective central government since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991. A few years later a U.S.-U.N. peace mission ended in humiliation and a bloody withdrawal from Somalia.
    The AU hopes it will do better.
    A cargo plane dropped off 35 uniformed Ugandan officers in Somalia on Thursday (March 01), as part of a proposed AU force of 8,000 troops.
    Officials expect the rest of the 1,635-strong Ugandan contingent to land in Somalia probably next week.
    Nigeria, Ghana, Malawi and Burundi are also expected to send troops to bring the force to about half its planned strength of nine battalions.
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