SOMALIA: Hospitals report dozens killed and hundreds injured in fighting in the Somali capital Mogadishu

Record ID: 375474

  • Title: SOMALIA: Hospitals report dozens killed and hundreds injured in fighting in the Somali capital Mogadishu
  • Date: 7th October 2010
  • Summary: MOGADISHU, SOMALIA (OCTOBER 6,2010) (REUTERS) WIDE OF STREET WITH BUS AND AU ARMOURED PERSONNEL CARRIER PEOPLE RUNNING WITH SOUND OF GUNFIRE AMBULANCE WITH SIREN BLARING PEOPLE LOOKING AT BODY ON GROUND CHILDREN STANDING OVER BODY CHANTING "ALLAHU AKBAR!" BODY ON GROUND AMBULANCE DRIVING OFF VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF MADINA HOSPITAL BLOODY CLOTHES ON GROUND VARIOUS OF P
  • Embargoed: 22nd October 2010 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Somalia
  • Country: Somalia
  • Reuters ID: LVA8F3YZQNJTIN8WME42BAT7AJ17
  • Story Text: Fighting intensified in the Somali capital on Wednesday (October 6) as the transitional government backed by Africa Union troops from Uganda and Burundi sought to push back militants from the Al shabaab Islamic group.
    People scrambled across streets as automatic gunfire rattled and ambulance sirens blared as they delivered more wounded to the city's hospitals.
    African Union peacekeepers patrolled streets in armoured personnel carriers occasionally opening fire with their mounted machine guns.
    On one dusty street a crowd gathered around a body stripped of clothing with ropes tied to its feet. Residents claimed it was the body of a Burundian peacekeeper but there was no independent confirmation of this claim.
    Mogadishu's main hospital reported receiving almost two hundred patients in the past 48 hours.
    "In the last 48 hours we have received various casualties from the latest fighting in Mogadishu. There were 160 wounded people, mainly civilians wounded in the exchange of gunfire. Most of these are women and children." said Duniya Ali Mohamood, the director of the hospital.
    The fighting has raged for days with each side claims to be gaining the upper hand.
    The government has failed to end a three-year insurgency by hardline Islamists who now control much of the capital and huge chunks of south and central Somalia.
    Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG) has been wracked by internal divisions that observers say have slowed government business to a crawl, while fighting across swathes of the country means it exerts little central control.
    The al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab militants have stepped up their offensive to topple the government in the last six weeks, using suicide bomb attacks to deadly effect.
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