SOMAILIA: Foreign fighter killed in Somalia

Record ID: 374939

  • Title: SOMAILIA: Foreign fighter killed in Somalia
  • Date: 12th July 2009
  • Summary: MOGADISHU, SOMALIA (JULY 11, 2009) (REUTERS) VARIOUS WIDES OF MOGADISHU CITY (2 SHOTS) VARIOUS OF AFRICA UNION TROOPS SECURING VILLA SOMALIA, PRESIDENTIAL PALACE OF SOMALIA SOLDIERS STANDING NEAR CEMENT BARRICADES VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS
  • Embargoed: 27th July 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Reuters ID: LVAAWZAVND95AZNUD2EF7Z3CO4MU
  • Story Text: Fierce fighting in Somalia kills 20 including a foreign fighter believed to be an Afghani national.
    Clashes between Islamist insurgents and Somali troops killed at least 20 people on Saturday (July 11), including a senior police officer and a foreign fighter in the heaviest fighting for a week, residents and government officials said.
    President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's government is struggling to take control over the Horn of Africa nation and the capital Mogadishu from hardline opposition fighters bent on overthrowing his western-backed government.
    Interim government soldiers battled their way into some rebel strongholds in north Mogadishu where the two sides exchanged mortar and machine gun fire.
    Somalia's military spokesman showed the body of what he said was a foreign national fighting with Hizbul Islam, an umbrella opposition group led by hardline Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys.
    "As you can see this is an Afghani fighter. There are many more foreign fighters in the country who were fighting us today, the fighters are mostly of Pakistani and Eritrean origin. We are holding a press conference to show that foreigners are engaging government forces and we are prepared to show you many others next time," military spokesman, Farhan Arsanyoh told journalists.
    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 African Union 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 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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