SOMALIA: Fighting flares in Mogadishu

Record ID: 374848

  • Title: SOMALIA: Fighting flares in Mogadishu
  • Date: 25th August 2010
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF CROWD OF CIVILIANS HIDING OUT OF THE CROSSFIRE BETWEEN AFRICAN UNION FORCES AND AL SHABAAB FIGHTERS
  • Embargoed: 9th September 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Somalia
  • Country: Somalia
  • Reuters ID: LVAC2GAUWWNV2975PMU2PBBH6GHR
  • Story Text: Fighting in the Somali capital Mogadishu intensified on Tuesday (August 24), just hours before a deadly attack on a hotel killed a number of lawmakers, bringing a new wave of civilian casualties.
    The death toll continued to rise as fighting between government forces and Al Shabaab and another Islamist militia intensified this week, with scores killed in explosions and firefights over the weekend, on Monday (August 23) and early Tuesday.
    Eleven militiamen, mostly foreign fighters allied to Somali militants, were killed when their own bombs went off prematurely in Mogadishu over the weekend. The dead were from Pakistan, India, Afghanistan, Algeria and Somalia.
    At least 25 people were killed on Monday in fresh clashes between Islamist militants and government troops backed by African Union (AU) mission soldiers and ambulance service coordinators said they had collected 75 injured people and seen 25 dead bodies on Monday.
    Medina Hospital Director Mohamed Yusuf was overwhelmed with the rising numbers of casualties he is having to deal with.
    "We have 39 wounded civilians brought into the hospital and we have treated 25 of them, most of were coursed by mortar and artillery firing between warring sides and we are still receiving wounded civilians from different parts in Mogadishu, some of them in very serious conditions," said Medina hospital's Mohamed Yusuf.
    Just hours later, gunfire and an explosion ripped through a hotel in what was believed to be a secure area of the city.
    Somali gunmen disguised in army uniforms stormed the building, which is popular with government officials, leaving more than 30 people dead including 15 parliamentarians.
    More than 21,000 Somalis have been killed in fighting since the start of the insurgency, 1.5 million have been uprooted from their homes and nearly half a million are sheltering in other countries in the region.
    Uganda said last month it was willing to send an additional 2,000 peacekeeping troops to the anarchic country after more than 70 people were killed in two coordinated blasts while watching the World Cup final in Kampala.
    African leaders meeting in Uganda last month lifted a cap of 8,100 on troop levels in Somalia. IGAD -- a bloc of East African Nations -- Guinea and Djibouti also pledged to send troops.
    The AU has said it has established the identities of those behind the training and financing of al Shabaab and has a list of some 2,000 names, The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organisation said in a report on Monday that a quarter of Somalia's population, or 2 million people, needed humanitarian aid. Somalia has had no effective central government for nearly 20 years.
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