By Sahal Abdulle
Friday, April 13, 2007
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali and Ethiopian troops fought sporadic clashes with insurgents for a third day on Friday in Mogadishu, threatening a lasting truce with the city's dominant Hawiye clan.
Witnesses reported sporadic outbursts of gunfire throughout the day with occasional Ethiopian artillery shelling. No casualties were immediately reported.
The shooting, which started on Wednesday, shattered 10 days of calm since a March 29-April 1 offensive by Ethiopian and Somali troops targeting insurgents killed 1,000 people and sent thousands of others fleeing.
More than 208,000 people have fled fighting in the seaside capital since the beginning of February -- roughly a fifth of the city's estimated 1 million people, the United Nations refugee agency said on Friday.
Talks between the Ethiopian military and the Hawiye continued in spite of the fighting, with the clan saying it wanted to take part in battling terrorism -- the main reason Ethiopia and the government said it was targeting insurgents.
"The Somali people have been suspicious about the aims of the fight against terrorists," said a letter from the Hawiye clan to Ethiopia, seen by Reuters.
Many Somalis see it as a fight against Islam "killing and creating widespread destruction while the stated aim is to look for a few individuals," the letter said, adding the Hawiye clan will create a committee to help fight terrorism and will help in finding suspected al Qaeda affiliates.
Addis Ababa and Washington both accuse members of a militant Islamist movement of links to al Qaeda, and say some al Qaeda operatives are hiding in Somalia with its support.
The insurgents are drawn from the Hawiye and the Islamist movement, formerly known as the Somalia Council of Islamic Courts.
Ethiopian and Somali troops defeated the Islamist movement, which had Hawiye backing and ruled southern Somalia for the last half of 2006, in a brief war over the New Year.
The transitional federal government is Somalia's 14th attempt to install central rule in the Horn of Africa nation since former dictator Siad Barre's 1991 ouster heralded an era of anarchy.
Source: Reuters, April 13, 2007