SOMALIA: Fighting between Islamic militia and allied Somali-Ethiopian troops continues

Record ID: 375446

  • Title: SOMALIA: Fighting between Islamic militia and allied Somali-Ethiopian troops continues
  • Date: 24th April 2007
  • Summary: VARIOUS OF DESTROYED HOUSE AND MOSQUE
  • Embargoed: 9th May 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Somalia
  • Country: Somalia
  • Reuters ID: LVA3M6KNK5MJSQWMX060NU0YT3KL
  • Story Text: Heavy shelling and tank fire rocks Mogadishu for a sixth day in some of the fiercest fighting seen in the Somali capital as the country is plunged deeper into chaos. The Somali capital Mogadishu has been hit by fighting for a sixth day. Rights activists say allied Somali-Ethiopian troops killed 37 people on Monday (April 23) in a campaign to wipe out Islamist rebels.
    That brought the death toll from the latest violence to at least 267, according to the local Elman Peace and Human Rights Organisation, which tracks casualties from hospitals, families and counts on the street, where bodies rot in the sun.
    The Elman group said 18 civilians and 19 insurgents were killed on Monday. There was no way to independently confirm the figures because of the fighting. There was no word of Ethiopian and Somali military casualties.
    Civilians have been the main victims and hospitals are so crowded the wounded are tended in tents or under trees. Hundreds of terrified residents continued fleeing the capital which is seeing its biggest exodus since warlords overthrew a dictator in 1991 and plunged the Horn of Africa country into 16 years of lawlessness.
    The government is struggling to gain full control of the capital four months after ousting rival Islamist leaders who ruled much of southern Somalia for the second half of 2006.
    Four days of fighting at the end of March killed at least 1,000 people, again mostly civilians.
    Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi has said there will be no let-up in the offensive until the government crushes Islamist rebels backed by foreign jihadists and disgruntled militiamen from the capital's dominant Hawiye clan.
    He said Eritrea was interfering, prolonging the fighting.
    "Eritrea is helping with money and military assistance to international terrorists in Somalia," Gedi told reporters.
    Eritrean officials could not be reached immediately for comment but have denied such allegations in the past.
    Gedi has said there was no dispute between the Hawiye clan and his government, saying the fighting was with militants linked to al Qaeda.
    An African Union force of about 1,500 Ugandan peacekeepers, working with Gedi's government and also targeted by the insurgents, has so far failed to stop the bloodshed.
    The latest battles are centred on an insurgent stronghold in northern Mogadishu. The United Nations says it believes there are some 3,000 insurgents active in the bullet-scarred city.

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