|
By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
The fighting Tuesday evening was the heaviest in Somalia's capital since the tottering government's Ethiopian allies withdrew earlier this month.
Ambulance driver Ahmed Abdi said a fight in southern Mogadishu to control a police post killed three civilians and seven fighters. Another employee at the ambulance service, Rufa'I Mohamed Salad, said at least 30 had been wounded and many were in critical condition.
Resident Fadumo Haji said hundreds of families had fled the fighting. The southern neighborhoods of Dharkinley and Wadajir were previously government strongholds with relatively little fighting and displaced people had gathered there, she said.
"People have been fleeing since this morning in their hundreds because the rival troops are still eyeball to eyeball in the residential areas," she said.
In a separate clash, insurgents attacked government forces manning a tax collection point in the northern neighborhood of Sana, killing four people wounding six others, resident Mustaf Mo'alim Nur said.
The fighting is yet another sign of the crumbling authority of a weak and divided government. Former president Abdullahi Yusuf resigned last month after months of infighting, and parliament has not selected a replacement.
Pro-government militias have been pushed out of everywhere in southern and central Somalia but the parliamentary seat and pockets of the capital. Now even those are under attack by the insurgents.
Ethiopian troops supporting the government had dislodged one Islamist administration from the capital and much of the south two years ago, but the Ethiopians pulled out this month.
Islamist fighters promptly took over their abandoned bases, but the insurgency is splitting between moderates and extremists who have begun fighting among themselves.
The arid and impoverished Horn of Africa nation has not had a functioning government for a generation, since clan-based militias overthrew the a dictator in 1991 then turned on each other. Pirates prey on international shipping freely from Somalia's lawless shores, and analysts fear an extremist Islamic administration could become a haven for international terrorists.
On Wednesday, Spain's Parliament agreed to contribute around 400 troops to EU patrols against piracy off Somalia. Final Cabinet approval is expected Friday.
Somali pirates last year carried out more than 100 attacks. A Spanish trawler escaped a hijacking attempt in September, but a Spanish fishing boat seized in April was held six days until a reported $1.2 million ransom was paid.
Spain would join the EU flotilla and warships from Britain, India, Iran, China and the U.S. in patrolling between the shores of Yemen and Somalia to protect commercial vessels.
Source: AP, Jan 21, 2009