Five killed in Somali blast
04/04/2008 16:03  - (SA)  

SA urged to end Somali crisis Islamists seize Somali town 15 000 Somalis forced to flee

Mogadishu - An explosion killed an Ethiopian soldier and four Somali soldiers in the Somali capital on Friday, witnesses said.

Witness Ali Shire said he saw the bodies lying underneath a blown-up vehicle in the northern Mogadishu neighbourhood of Heyle Barise, but fled the scene after Ethiopian troops began shooting at passers-by. At least two men were injured by the gunfire, he said.

Sacdiya Hussein, a local woman at the site of the explosion, said: "It looked very ugly, there was blood everywhere."

Islamic insurgents have carried out almost daily attacks on government troops and their Ethiopian allies in the capital since they were driven from Mogadishu in December 2006.

In the past few months, fighters linked to the Islamic Courts Union have begun staging hit-and-run raids on outlying towns.

Impoverished Somalia has not had a government since warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and then turned their clan-based militias on each other.

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