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MOGADISHU, May 22, 2009 –
Somali government forces attacked rebel strongholds in Mogadishu on
Friday, triggering battles across the capital that killed at least 45
people, the highest daily death toll for months.
Neighboring states and Western security forces fear Somalia, which has
been mired in civil war for 18 years, could become a haven for militants
linked to al Qaeda.
"At least 45 people including 28 civilians died in today's fighting,"
Ali Yasin Gedi, vice chairman of Elman Peace and Human Rights
Organization told Reuters.
"One hundred and eighty two people, including civilians and the warring
groups were also injured."
Residents scuttled across the dusty streets and sheltered by walls as
heavy gunfire shook the capital. Some children milled around near a dead
body, its blood draining into the sand.
Fighters wearing headscarves with ammunition belts draped over their
shoulders loitered on a corner as a battered 4x4 pickup with a heavy
machinegun on top raced past.
The government says there is little hope of negotiating with the Shabaab
gunmen trying to topple it. The administration says the rebels have no
political agenda and have hundreds of foreign extremists in their ranks.
"The opposition groups have been provoking us for the last three weeks,"
said Defense Minister Mohamed Abdi Gandi.
"We shall continue fighting this opposition with foreign ideologies.
They want to destroy our government by the use of violence but it will
not be," he told reporters.
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, an influential Islamist opposition leader who
once ran Mogadishu with President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, also said his
forces would battle on.
"We shall defeat the government soon, God willing," he told Reuters in
his Mogadishu home. "We should not be deceived by Westerners like
Sharif."
REBEL STRONGHOLD SURROUNDED
The heaviest fighting for months has killed scores of civilians and
uprooted tens of thousands in the last two weeks. "I saw masked men
running away carrying the bodies of four of their friends," Halima Osman,
a mother-of-three who lives in the city's sprawling Bakara Market, told
Reuters.
"We were surprised to see men in government uniforms fighting in Bakara.
They have recaptured four police stations between here and the palace,
and they are advancing further."
Residents said Friday's pre-dawn assaults looked to be a concerted
effort by pro-government forces to seize back control of strategic
sites. One man said government troops had encircled Bakara Market, al
Shabaab's biggest stronghold in the city.
Hassan Mahdi, a spokesman for Hizbul Islam, another Islamist guerrilla
group battling the government, told Reuters by telephone that troops had
struck at their positions too.
"Al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam are counter-attacking ... we have pushed
them back in some places. There are casualties, but I can't say how
many. We are in the middle of fighting," Mahdi said as heavy gunfire
thundered in the background.
Local journalist Abdirizak Warsame was killed in the crossfire as he
walked to work at his radio station.
"A stray bullet hit him in the head and he died on the spot," Shabelle
Radio boss Mukhtar Mohamed Hirabe told Reuters.
Fighting has killed at least 17,700 civilians and driven more than 1
million from their homes since the start of 2007. About 3 million
Somalis survive on emergency food aid.
The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR says 49,000 people have now fled
clashes in Mogadishu in the past two weeks. (Additional reporting by
Ibrahim Mohamed and Mohamed Ahmed; Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by
David Clarke)
Source: Reuters
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