SOMALIA: Insurgents fire mortars into disabled people's hospital near Mogadishu port.

Record ID: 352830

  • Title: SOMALIA: Insurgents fire mortars into disabled people's hospital near Mogadishu port.
  • Date: 13th September 2009
  • Summary: CLOSE SHOT OF BLOOD STAIN BLOODSTAINED CLOTHING
  • Embargoed: 28th September 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Somalia
  • Country: Somalia
  • Topics: Domestic Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA20HCCBR9723XJ39C29DTI05BR
  • Story Text: Shells fired towards Mogadishu's port killed at least nine people and wounded 19 in the latest in a string of mortar attacks by insurgents, witnesses said on Saturday.
    Residents said the mortars shells missed their target and landed on Martini former hospital on Friday (September 11) evening. The building houses members of the Somali forces disabled during a war with Ethiopia in 1977.
    Martini lies between the presidential palace and Mogadishu's port, the few areas of the Somali capital controlled by the government and African Union peacekeeping troops.
    "There is a canteen supported by Dubai red cross and those dead people were preparing to end their fasting when the mortar hit as you see ten civilians were killed and thirty were badly injured." said Abdi Abshir, a witness.
    Violence has killed more than 18,000 Somalis since the start of 2007 and displaced another 1.5 million. Hardline insurgents who want to impose their own harsh version of sharia law have been fighting the country's Western-backed governments.
    President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's government controls just parts of the coastal capital and central region. Most of the south is run by insurgents, including the al Shabaab group which Washington says has links to al Qaeda.
    The West fears Somalia, a country that has languished without strong central government since 1991, may be harbouring supporters of Osama bin Laden who are planning to strike in east Africa or elsewhere.
    On Thursday, the local Elman rights group said the behaviour of the hardline insurgents during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan was unacceptable.
    They have launched attacks while civilians were breaking their daily fast with an evening meal and fired mortar barrages from hiding places in residential neighbourhoods, it said.
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