Thursday, April 05, 2007
MOGADISHU (AFP) - Heavy exchanges of weapon fire and shelling broke out briefly overnight in a Mogadishu district where Ethiopian troops are facing off with Islamist insurgents and clan fighters, residents said Thursday.
Other areas of the capital remained calm for a fourth day, one week after the start of the heaviest fighting in the battered city in 15 years.
An AFP correspondent heard heavy exchanges of gunfire and mortar shelling near the city's main soccer stadium at around midnight Wednesday, which lasted for around 15 minutes. It was unclear if there were any casualties.
Ethiopian troops are positioned in and around the stadium and have been facing off with insurgents, entrenched behind sandbags, in the streets nearby since fighting tailed off on Sunday.
Most residents have fled the area, and the neighbouring Al Kamin neighbourhood, a flashpoint for the heavy fighting that broke out last Thursday with an Ethiopian offensive on Islamist rebels backed by clan militia.
Elders from the city's dominant Hawiye clan said they would collect bodies from inside houses in the area Thursday, after beginning the grim operation the previous day in a tense atmosphere as the rival forces looked on.
They said they had buried at least 16 bodies in a cemetery on the outskirts of the city on Thursday.
The elders said they were due to meet with Ethiopian commanders Thursday afternoon for further talks, after reaching a tentative ceasefire deal with them on Sunday.
Ethiopian commanders have yet to confirm any truce.
A local rights group, which compiled figures from hospitals and witnesses, said 381 civilians had died and 565 were wounded in the four days of clashes that ended on Sunday.
The United Nations estimates that around 100,000 people, or one tenth of the population, have fled Mogadishu since February, including nearly half of those in the past 10 days.
Ethiopian-Somali forces drove Islamist fighters with alleged links to the Al-Qaeda network out of Mogadishu and south and central Somalia some three months ago.
Source: AFP, April 05, 2007