Fierce fighting in Somalia kills 20 on the eighth straight day
Aweys Osman Yusuf
Mogadishu 26, April.07 ( Sh.M.Network) Heavy fighting resumed in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Thursday as Ethiopian soldiers backed by tanks and various types artillery moved to new positions in north of the capital while Islamic insurgents were firing mortar rounds and rockets at the Ethiopian and Somali troops based in the southern parts.
The fighting that is continuing for the eighth straight day spread to new areas in south of Mogadishu. Insurgents were fighting Thursday around Harirayaale neighborhood near the presidential compound. Hundreds of families have still been fleeing the gun-infested city.
At least 20 persons, most of them civilians, were killed in different neighborhoods of the capital today after rockets and tank shells landed at Jamhuriah, Fagah neighborhoods and EX-Control intersection, north of Mogadishu.
Witnesses have told Shabelle that they saw more than 30 Ethiopian tanks on route to Ex-control and Tawfiq areas, strongholds for the insurgents and clan militias.
Asad Hamoud, a resident in Tawfiq told Shabelle that two rockets fired by Ethiopian troops landed at a house in the neighborhood. “Four people of one family and two men passing by the road were killed. I can also see three young men and two women screaming. They are really seriously wounded,†he said.
Dead bodies are also littered in some areas where the fighting has been going on in the past week.
Latest reports indicate that the Ethiopian soldiers took over control of Tawfiq neighborhood and Ex-control Junction Thursday. The areas were frequented by Somali Islamists in the past days.
Two rockets landed at SOS hospital yesterday. “Number of patients in the hospital was wounded and the explosions also damaged the hospital.
The hospital has no medicines. People have to buy their own medicines. We are asking the international agencies to provide the hospital with medical aid,†Abdirizak Washington told Shabelle on Wednesday after he contacted Shabelle.
The Somalia interim government repeatedly said in the past that fighting would go on. “Until the terrorists are wiped out from Somalia, the Somali government forces backed by Ethiopian and the AU UPDF troops will continue to fight with the terrorists clearly linked to Al-Qaeda,†Somalia Premier Ali Mohammed Gedi said in a news conference he held in the capital in early this week.
Somalia has had no affective central government since 1991 when warlords toppled former dictator Mohammed Siad Barre.
