By Abdi Sheikh
Wednesday, September 05, 2007
Residents woke to the rattle of machinegun fire as gunmen battled police and soldiers in the rubble-strewn streets of the capital.
"We killed eight insurgents in the operation and three policemen were also wounded," said police spokesman Abdi Wahid Mohamed.
Many residents were trapped in their houses by the early morning clashes.
"I saw three dead men and six wounded people (in the street) but I could not go out of the house," Farah Aden Omar told Reuters by telephone.
The Madina Hospital received 29 wounded people, of whom one died, said a medical source who asked not to be named.
The interim government wrapped up a six-week national reconciliation conference in Mogadishu last week that produced optimistic resolutions but had no apparent impact on an Islamist-led insurgency raging in Mogadishu.
In Nairobi, Somalia's ambassador to Kenya said President Abdullahi Yusuf had given an assurance the government would fulfil the pledges made at the conference -- including solving the crisis, disarmament, and sharing of power and wealth.
Opposition figures, including some Islamist leaders, plan to hold a rival conference in Eritrea starting on Thursday, to try to unite Somalia's anti-government forces.
Somali Ambassador to Kenya Mohamed Abdi Nur slammed the move as redundant and unhelpful.
"We believe anything organised outside the country will come to nothing," he told a news conference.
He said the Kenyan embassy in Mogadishu had opened for the first time in 17 years.
Somalia has had no stable leadership since the 1991 ouster of military dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, and has had 14 attempts at restoring central rule.
Source: Reuters, Sept 05, 2007