- Title: SOMALIA: Fighting at busy market in Mogadishu kills five
- Date: 22nd March 2008
- Summary: WOUNDED MAN ARRIVING AT HOSPITAL TEENAGE GIRL WHO WAS HIT IN THE HEAD BY A STRAY BULLET WOUNDED MAN RELATIVES AND FRIENDS WAITING AT HOSPITAL VARIOUS OF NURSES TREATING PATIENTS IN THE INTENSIVE CARE UNIT
- Embargoed: 6th April 2008 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Somalia
- Country: Somalia
- Reuters ID: LVADRULIDW7ZDU0P9ZJR2MK2OMJE
- Story Text: Fighting intensified in Somalia's capital as clashes between government troops and Islamist-led insurgents on Thursday (March 20) killed at least three government soldiers, a doctor and a young girl, witnesses said.
Dozens were also wounded.
Locals said insurgents attacked government security forces based near Mogadishu's sprawling Bakara market, killing the three troops and seizing two battlewagons.
An 11 year-old girl was killed by a stray bullet. Her father said she was hit when trying to take cover during the fighting.
Dozens of the wounded flocked to the Madina hospital. At least 7,000 people have died, and hundreds of thousands been displaced since the government and its Ethiopian military allies ousted the Islamists from power in late 2006.
The bloody insurgency, characterised by roadside bombs and hit-and-run attacks, has created what aid workers call one of the world's worst but most ignored humanitarian crises.
On Thursday, a group of people in support of the insurgents took to the streets and began shouting "God is great". Witnesses said they smashed soldiers' booths on roadsides.
Ethiopia sent thousands of soldiers into Somalia in late 2006 to help the government topple Somalia's Islamic Courts Council which had ruled most of the south from Mogadishu since the middle of that year. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
- Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2011. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
- Usage Terms/Restrictions: None