SOMALIA: Mortar attacks on Mogadishu kill at least 12

Record ID: 375409

  • Title: SOMALIA: Mortar attacks on Mogadishu kill at least 12
  • Date: 9th August 2009
  • Summary: (SOUNDBITE) (Somali) MOHAMED ABDULLAH, MOGADISHU RESIDENT, SAYING: "There was a mortar attack on this house we don't know where it came from, six people were killed including two children and seven others were wounded." RELATIVES LOOKING ON MEN CARRYING DEAD BODIES INTO PICK UP TRUCK ONLOOKERS AT BAKARA MARKET
  • Embargoed: 24th August 2009 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Somalia
  • Country: Somalia
  • Reuters ID: LVA34F5L74O2XR1YDCTA6W7T8U1R
  • Story Text: Mortar attacks on Somalia's capital Mogadishu killed at least 12 since Friday and Al Shabaab militants halt work by foreign NGOs.
    At least 12 people were killed in two mortar attacks on Somali's capital Mogadishu, in two days, witnesses said.
    Witnesses say a mortar on Friday (August 07) may have been targeted at Mogadishu's airport then hit a residential area. There was no immediate official confirmation on the reports.
    "There was a mortar attack on this house we don't know where it came from, six people were killed including two children and seven others were wounded," said Mohamed Abdullah, a resident of Mogadishu.
    The mortar attack on Saturday (August 08) hit the busy Bakara market killing four people.
    "There were six people wounded some of them very serious and they were taken to the hospital and I am not aware whether they died on their way to hospital," said Xashi Hirsi, a trader in the market.
    The attacks come days after Somali president Sheikh Sharif Ahmed met with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in neighbouring Nairobi. The U.S. pledged support for Sharif's struggling government embattled in an insurgency led by al Qaeda linked militant group, Al shabaab.
    Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, the prominent leader of another insurgent group, Hizbul Islam, issued a statement in Mogadishu on Saturday condemning U.S. policy and vowing to fight on.
    Somalia has been torn by civil war since 1991, and Ahmed's government controls only small pockets of the rubble-strewn capital Mogadishu.
    The violence has killed more than 18,000 people since the start of 2007 and uprooted another 1 million. Western security agencies say the failed Horn of Africa state is a haven for extremists plotting attacks in the region and beyond.
    Al Shabaab halted the work of four foreign aid agencies on Saturday, saying they were cooperating with U.N. relief organisations agencies expelled from areas under its control.
    An al Shabaab commander in the southern town of Jamame, named the four as U.S. charity Mercy Corps, Italy's Cooperazione Internazionale, Briton's Oxfam and UK-based international relief group Muslim Aid.
    A local Somali partner organisation, the Jubba Foundation, was also told to suspend its activities.
    Residents said al Shabaab fighters had taken over the groups' compounds in Jamame, about 60km (37 miles) north of Kismayu.
    Last month, al Shabaab banned the U.N. Development Programme, U.N. Political Office for Somalia and U.N. Department of Safety and Security from operating in its territory.
    More fighting in a pirate stronghold on the coast of Somalia between clan militiamen killed at least 17 people and wounded 30 on Saturday.
    The fighting began overnight and intensified in the morning, forcing most of Haradheere's residents to flee.
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