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Corpses 'abandoned on streets'
23/04/2007 09:24 - (SA)
Mogadishu - Heavy shelling shook the Somali capital on Monday as Ethiopian forces battled Islamist insurgents for the sixth straight day.
After a night of sporadic fire, heavy explosions hit northern Mogadishu's districts, where rival sides exchanged machine gun fire, mortars and anti-aircraft artillery, residents said.
"I have seen Ethiopian tanks taking positions and heavily shelling insurgent positions," said Mukhtar Mohamed, a resident of Fagah in northern Mogadishu.
"The fighting is heavier than yesterday, the rivals are exchanging machine guns, mortar and anti-aircraft fire," he added.
Several civilians have been trapped in the area as scores of rotting corpses lay abandoned on the streets, where Ethiopian tanks and the insurgents' modified pick-up trucks raced with fighters aboard firing recklessly.
"The fighting is very heavy and the casualties are steadily increasing everyday. The Ethiopian forces are hitting civilians indiscriminately," Hussein Said Korgab, the spokesperson for Mogadishu's dominant Hawiye clan, told AFP.
The clashes, which erupted on Wednesday, have so far killed 219 civilians and wounded hundreds others, according to the Elman Peace and Human Rights Organisation which tracks casualty figures.
The latest flare-up has displaced at least tens of thousands and destroyed property of massive value, Korgab said.
"At least 70 000 have evacuated their homes. Property worth $500m has been destroyed. The Ethiopian and government forces will take ultimate responsibility for all these mess," he added.
Four days of fighting earlier this month claimed at least 1 000 lives in clashes that were described as the worst bloodletting since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
The United Nations says some 321 000 people have fled Mogadishu since February. Many are camped under trees and makeshift hovels in the city's outskirts, without supplies and where disease outbreaks have been reported.
- AFP
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