Somali fighting toll hits 39
2008-07-02 08:30
Mogadishu - At least 39 people were killed on Tuesday in fighting that erupted after Islamist insurgents attacked Somali, Ethiopian and African Union forces in the capital and central region, residents said.
The clashes, some of the most serious in months, came a week before a deadline for the implementation of a truce agreement signed by rival factions last month in Djibouti was due to expire.
Thirteen civilians were killed in three southern Mogadishu districts after more than two hours of clashes punctuated by machine-gun fire, mortars and rocket-propelled grenades.
A mortar landed in a house in K4 district, killing six family members, after fighting erupted when insurgents attacked AU peacekeepers and Somali forces camped in the area, Ahmed Ali Nur, a family member, said.
Ethiopian army convoy ambushed
A woman and two children were killed in Bulohube district after a mortar crashed into their houses as another batch of rebels attacked an Ethiopian army base nearby.
Four children were killed in Waberi district in artillery duels between the Ethiopians and the rebels, bringing the Mogadishu toll to 13, several residents added.
In central Somalia, insurgents ambushed an Ethiopian army convoy travelling from Guguriel near the Ethiopian border to Mataban town, about 450km north of Mogadishu.
"I counted 18 bodies in and around Mataban town," said Hussein Moaliam Aden, an elder in Mataban, adding that he had seen the bodies of at least seven Ethiopian soldiers lying near the ambush site.
Mataban residents said a child was killed as the clashes spread into the town in Galgudud region, confirming that 26 people had been killed.
UN deploys troops
Residents reported that the fighting, in which both sides used armoured vehicles, was the heaviest in the region since Ethiopian forces entered Somalia in late 2006 to bolster the country's weak government.
"Most of the dead are from the rival sides. We have never seen such a heavy fighting since the Ethiopian forces entered our country," local resident Feisal Mohamed said.
Sheikh Abdirahim Isse, a spokesperson for the insurgents, confirmed the Mataban clashes and claimed the Ethiopians had suffered heavy losses.
"There was heavy fighting today and the Ethiopian forces suffered huge losses. Many of them were killed and their armed vehicles destroyed," Isse said.
The Ethiopian army, which rarely commented about such incidents, had pledged to pull out once the United Nations deploys a peacekeeping force to bolster an embattled AU peacekeeping force confined to Mogadishu.
Since they were ousted from power last year, the Islamists had waged a bitter guerrilla war, focused on Ethiopian, government and AU targets almost daily.
According to several international rights groups and aid agencies, the fighting had left at least 6 000 civilians dead and displaced hundreds of thousands in the last 12 months alone.