By Mohamed Olad Hassan
Thursday, March 29, 2007
"Two helicopters flew over us. One was making a surveillance and the other one was dropping several bombs," said Qoje Omar Gesey, a resident of the capital. He said the bombs fell near a former market in northern Mogadishu.
Earlier Thursday, at least six people were killed in a fresh skirmishes between Ethiopian troops supporting the fragile Somali government and insurgents, residents said. The dead were believed to be civilians.
Khalid Mohamed Arabey, who lives near the Mogadishu stadium in the south, said the Ethiopian troops met with stiff resistance from a dozen gunmen, who used rocket propelled grenades, mortars and machine-guns. The Ethiopians responded with artillery and tank shells.
Somalia has seen little more than anarchy for more than a decade. The government, with crucial support from Ethiopian troops, only months ago toppled an Islamic militia that had controlled Mogadishu.
Insurgents believed to be the remnants of Somalia's Council of Islamic Courts have staged almost daily attacks against the government, its armed forces and the Ethiopian military. Last week, a cargo plane carrying equipment for African Union peacekeepers here was shot down by a missile during takeoff, killing the 11-person crew.
The United States has accused the Islamic group of having ties to al-Qaeda.
The U.N.'s refugee agency said 57,000 people have fled violence in the Somali capital since the beginning of February, including more than 10,000 people who fled the city in the last week.
The figures were based on information provided by non-governmental organizations in Somalia, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees said in a statement released late Wednesday.
"There has been a steady exodus from the city since the beginning of February, when armed groups clashed with forces of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG)," the agency said.
Source: AP, Mar 29, 2007