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Fighting continues in Somalia
24/04/2007 13:22 - (SA)
Mogadishu - Heavy shelling and tank fire shook the Somali capital for a seventh day on Tuesday, killing at least three, as Ethiopian troops stepped up their campaign to drive out Islamist insurgents.
After a night of sporadic gunfire, Ethiopian tanks pounded positions in northern and southern Mogadishu in a bid to weaken the insurgent fighters, whose grip on the capital has prevented the Somali interim government from functioning.
At least three people were killed and six others wounded when a mortar crashed into a concrete building sheltering around 20 people in Tawfiq in southern Mogadishu, witnesses said.
"We were hiding in the house in Tawfiq when a mortar shell landed and killed three people, one of them my elder brother," said resident Hassan Yayhe, adding that six others were injured.
"We do not know where to take the wounded because we cannot venture outside the building as there are stray bullets and mortar shells flying around the area," said Weli Mohamed, who was also in the house.
An AFP correspondent reported heavy shelling around the fortified presidential palace, guarded by Ethiopian troops and African Union peacekeepers, and in Fagah, northern Mogadishu.
"The fighting is continuing," said Yusuf Hassan, a Fagah resident. "We are hiding ourselves inside buildings, but heavy shells are destroying everything."
A resident of southern Al Kamin neighbourhood said he heard gun battles early on Tuesday.
Hospitals have been overwhelmed
"I saw Ethiopian tanks and trucks taking positions this morning. So far, there was some exchange of fire here," said Ali Hussein.
Ethiopian troops helped Somalia's UN-backed government oust Islamists from the country's south and central regions at the start of the year.
But since then fighting has steadily grown worse.
Mutilated bodies on Tuesday lay rotting in the streets in northern Mogadishu, with fighting blocking access for aid workers.
At least 256 people have died and hundreds have been wounded since the latest peak in fighting began last week, according to the Elman Peace and Human Rights Organisation, which monitors casualty rates.
Hospitals have been overwhelmed, with doctors appealing for extra medical supplies.
The UN refugee agency said last week that more than 321 000 people had fled the seaside capital since February 1, but elders told AFP that the figure could now be closer to 400 000 with the exodus of thousands more over the past six days.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Monday urged an end to deadly battles between insurgents, some of whom are allegedly linked to al-Qaeda, and the Somali government-allied Ethiopian troops.
The US State Department's top Africa official, Assistant Secretary of State Jendaye Frazer, also called for renewed ceasefire talks to end the deadliest clashes in the Somali capital since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
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