Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Mogadishu's near-daily fighting started early in the morning, locking many residents in their houses.
"Two men were killed, one was a waiter and the other was the brother of a restaurant owner," said Hamdi Ahmed Ali, a resident close to Bakara market where government soldiers exchanged gunfire with rebels.
Another resident said he saw dead bodies lying on the streets from the top of his house.
"I saw three dead men and six wounded people but I could not go out of the house," Farah Aden Omar told Reuters by telephone.
The Madina Hospital received 29 wounded people, of which one died, said a medical source who asked not to be named. Somali police declined to comment, saying an operation was under way.
Somalia's interim government concluded a six-week National Reconciliation Conference in Mogadishu last week that produced a raft of upbeat resolutions but had no impact on the Islamist-led insurgency against it and its Ethiopian military allies.
Opposition figures, including some Islamists, are to hold a rival conference in Asmara starting on Thursday, to try to unite Somalia's anti-government players.
The Horn of Africa country has had no stable leadership since the 1991 ouster of military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, and has had 14 attempts at uniting clans under one government.
Source: Reuters, Sept 05, 2007