At least 17 killed in Mogadishu shelling

2009-10-22

Exchange of mortar, artillery fire between Somali insurgents and African peacekeepers.

MOGADISHU - Seventeen civilians were killed and 58 people wounded Thursday in Mogadishu in an exchange of mortar and artillery fire between insurgents and African peacekeepers, medical sources said.

"At least 17 civilians were killed and we have counted 58 wounded," Ali Muse, head of the Somali capital's ambulance services, said.

"I can say this was the worst such incident recently in Mogadishu. Heavy shelling was hitting civilian populated areas, including Bakara market, Holwadag and Hodan," he said.

According to witnesses, the clashes started when insurgent fighters opened mortar fire on the airport as President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was flying out off the country for diplomatic visits.

Sharif was heading to Uganda for an African Union summit on refugees and internally-displaced people and boarding the plane when a hail of mortar shells started raining on the area, police officer Colonel Ali Abdullahi said.

Peacekeepers from the African Union mission in Somalia (AMISOM) fired back.

An alliance of the Shebab group and the more political Hezb al-Islam group on May 7 launched a countrywide military offensive aimed at toppling Sharif.

The Ethiopian army invaded Somalia in late 2006 to rescue Somalia's embattled transitional government and oust the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), which controlled of much of the country's central and southern regions.

The ICU had ruled much of Somalia with relative peace and prosperity until the Ethiopian involvement.

Since then, ICU fighters have waged a deadly insurgency against the Ethiopian and the transitional government forces.

But Ethiopian troops’ retaliations have caused many casualties among Somali civilians.

Since the Ethiopian invasion, about one million Somalis have fled their homes. An estimated 6,500 civilians have been killed.

Aid workers estimate 2.6 million Somalis need assistance. That number is expected to reach 3.5 million by the end of the year if the humanitarian situation does not improve, according to the UN.

In May 2008, Amnesty International accused the Ethiopian troops in Somalia of increasingly resorting to throat-slitting executions, highlighting an "increasing incidence" of gruesome methods by Ethiopian forces that include rape and torture.

Since the ousting of the ICU, Somalia had plunged into unprecedented chaos, where warlords and pirates have returned to the scene.

Many in Somalia see the departure of Ethiopian troops as a precondition to peace negotiations.

Source: Middle East Online.
Link: http://www.middle-east-online.com/english/?id=35167.