Monday, September 03, 2007
The pair were killed and four others wounded when government troops clashed with insurgents in Suqaholaha district, one of the most volatile zones in the seaside capital, said Abdisalam Hassan, a resident.
"They were killed in the fighting, but I don’t know whether they were civilians or not," he told AFP. Their bodies lay abandoned in the battlefield with residents saying they were afraid to collect them.
Another resident Ali Hassan Mohamed told AFP that warring sides exchanged heavy artillery fire, in which four civilians were wounded and buildings damaged.
"The fighting continued for about an hour and they used rocket propelled grenades and machine guns. Four of my neighbours were wounded by stray fire," Mohamed said.
Witnesses reported more artillery duels in neighbouring Tawfiq district, but casualty numbers were not immediately available.
Alarmed by a surge in clashes, the Somali parliament summoned the country’s police chief Abdi Hassan Awale Qeybdid, National Security Agency chief Mohamed Warsame Darwish and Mayor Mohamed Said Habeb to explains their efforts to halt the unrest.
"Parliament has summoned the three to answer questions on what they are doing to end insurgency and crime," deputy parliamentary speaker Mohamed Omar Talha told journalists in the central city of Baidoa.
The three were expected to arrive soon in Baidoa, where the 275-member assembly is based, he added.
Since Ethiopia and Somali troops ousted a dedicated confederacy of Islamist militants from the country’s central and southern regions early this year, Mogadishu has seen near-daily guerrilla-style tactics - roadside blasts, hit-and-run attacks and assassinations of government officials.
In addition, violent crime targeting civilians has increased in the city, officials say.
The joint forces and African Union peacekeepers from Uganda have failed to end the bloodshed, which the government blames on the Islamists with links to foreign extremists.
The Islamists managed to restore a semblance of order in their control zones for the second half of 2006, notably by implementing hardline Islamic regulations reminiscent of the Taliban in Afghanistan such as banning cinema.
Years of clan bickering exploded with the ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 and spawning a deadly power struggle that has defied numerous attempts to restore peace.
A three-year-old interim government has failed to exert its tenuous control beyond a few pockets held by allied factions, increasing fears by Western intelligence that the nation might become a haven for extremists sympathetic to Al Qaeda.
Talks aimed at uniting feuding clans and factions ended in failure last week in Mogadishu, prompting Western diplomats to call for a fresh and all-inclusive dialogue to save the nation from deeper turmoil.
Asmara-based Islamist leaders alongside key elders from Mogadishu’s dominant Hawiye clan, who boycotted the six-week conference, have vowed to widen their insurgency until Ethiopian forces deployed to bolster the government withdraw.
Aid groups say widespread insecurity has choked delivery of humanitarian supplies to around 1.5 million conflict-weary people threatened by shortages mainly in southern Somalia.
Source: AP, Sept 03, 2007