SOMALIA: Africa Union troops engage rebels near presidential palace as fighting intensifies

Record ID: 374825

  • Title: SOMALIA: Africa Union troops engage rebels near presidential palace as fighting intensifies
  • Date: 13th July 2009
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF DEAD AL SHABAAB FIGHTER
  • Embargoed: 28th July 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Somalia
  • Country: Somalia
  • Reuters ID: LVA1JTYIM3SQI83ZIUL9A3BQ8IG7
  • Story Text: Fighting in Somalia's capital claims 40 lives as civilians are caught in between.
    Somali government troops backed by African Union peacekeepers battled insurgents on Sunday (July 12) in clashes that killed at least 43 people in north Mogadishu, residents and officials said.
    Somalia's government and a 4,300-strong AU force (AMISOM) have been unable to take control of rebel strongholds in Mogadishu and other parts of the Horn of Africa nation despite international support and training.
    The insurgents had captured an area near presidential palace at the weekend forcing AMISOM to help the government forces in the battle.
    Somalia's interim government has been pushing for a stronger mandate for AMISOM to allow its soldiers to help government forces fight opposition groups. Ugandan and Burundi peacekeepers are only allowed to defend themselves if attacked and protect key sites such as the presidential palace, airport and harbour.
    "We have captured many areas held by opposition Islamic fighters in today's fighting, we have captured areas formerly controlled by opposition Islamists including Global hotel, Behani San'a, Abdilaziz Karan, Afarta darjino Lido and Galagalato village and the capture was a result of heavy fighting between the government forces and those of Alshabab," said a government commander Sadaq Ahmed.
    Residents said they saw AU troops in battlewagons fighting against insurgents in north Mogadishu.
    Fighting in Somalia since Ethiopian troops ousted a sharia courts movement in late 2006 has killed at least 18,000 people and sent hundreds of thousands more fleeing from their homes.
    On Saturday, clashes between insurgents and government troops killed at least 20 people in the heaviest fighting for a week in the capital.
    Al Shabaab and allied fighters control swathes of southern and central Somalia and have boxed in government troops and the 4,300-strong African Union force into a few blocks of Mogadishu.
    The United Nations and the AU say hundreds of foreigners are fighting alongside al Shabaab in Somalia, which has been without a strong central government since 1991.
    Western security agencies have long feared that Somalia with its large coastline and porous borders could become a haven for foreign militants looking to attack the region and beyond.
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