|
Soldiers decapitated in Somalia
17/05/2006 18:50 - (SA)
Mogadishu - Gunmen overran a compound held by a United States-backed warlord alliance outside the Somali capital of Mogadishu on Wednesday.
Seven soldiers were killed and several decapitated.
The Islamic militia's targeting of the base is the latest flare-up in fighting since the two sides began observing an informal truce on Sunday - after eight days of pitched street battles in Mogadishu.
At least nine fighters were wounded and a "battlewagon" - a pick-up mounted with a heavy machine gun - was seized from the compound about 20km north of the capital.
A fighter loyal to warlord Mohamed Omar Habeb Dheere said: "Seven people were killed and a battlewagon was taken by the Islamic court militia."
The fighter said he was forced to abandon the compound after the attack.
A fighter from a non-allied militia who was near the base when the attack took place said "a few were killed by gunfire and the others were beheaded after they were captured".
2 000 march for peace
Dheere - a member of the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT) - was not at the compound at the time of the attack.
The death toll from the most recent surge in violence between the alliance and the courts in and around Mogadishu is 140.
Meanwhile, more than 2 000 people attended an Islamist-sponsored demonstration for peace in southern Mogadishu on Wednesday, denouncing the alliance and its foreign backers.
Head of an umbrella group that represents the city's 11 Sharia law courts, Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, said: "The people of Mogadishu and the courts were equally attacked by the so-called alliance in the recent fighting.
It is a clear reference to the US
"The alliance is not a national institution but the creation of a foreign country."
Security for the march was provided by Islamic militia in southern Mogadishu's Howlwadag neighbourhood.
Ahmed did not name the country in question but his comments were a clear reference to the United States, which has been accused of funding the alliance as part of its broader war on terrorism.
The US has declined to comment on its backing of the alliance.
American officials have said the alliance has received US money and is one of several groups they are "working with" to contain a rise of radical Islam in Somalia.
US and alliance officials said the Islamic courts and their militia were harbouring foreign fighters and Muslim extremists, including members of Osama bin Laden's al-Qaeda network.
Clerics deny the charge.
|
News
