DPA
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
The fighting broke out during the morning after government troops backed by armoured vehicles raided a house at the market.
Police spokesperson Abdi Wahid Mohammed Hussein said police cordoned off a house in the Bakara market and militants inside responded with hand grenades and machine gunfire.
As government reinforcements arrived and fighting intensified the scene resembled an "abattoir", said the spokesperson.
Shoe-seller Mursal Sadiq, 36, said: "I saw five different dead bodies. Most of them were caught in the crossfire."
A witness speaking on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals said more than 10 wounded police officers were brought to a city hospital, at least one of whom died.
Assassination attempts, suicide bombings
The witness said: "The policemen were very angry about their casualties. They didn't allow pictures of the wounded to be taken, and some of the photographers were beaten."
The latest clashes followed the murder late on Tuesday of a government officer in Dharkenley district, south Mogadishu.
The slain man was a member of the national security forces and was shot dead as he entered his home, said Dharkenley district commissioner Mo'alim Abdullahi Ali. Police were investigating the shooting.
Since Ethiopian and Somali troops ousted an Islamist group that ruled the capital for the last half of 2006, Mogadishu had seen an explosion of violence, including a surge in crime targeting civilians.
The government blamed the assassination attempts, suicide bombings and grenade attacks on remnants of the Islamist group intent on waging an Iraq-style insurgency in the Somali capital.
Somalia was plunged into anarchy after warlords toppled dictator Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991, and later turned on each other, carving the Horn of Africa country into warring fiefdoms.
Source: dpa, Sept 05, 2007