Four more killed in Mogadishu fighting

By Aweys Yusuf

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MOGADISHU, Feb 21 (Reuters) - Fighting in Mogadishu killed four people on Thursday as Somali government troops and their Ethiopian allies battled Islamist-led rebels, residents said.

Witnesses said clashes broke out in the northern Suqa Holaha neighbourhood of the capital after government soldiers began patrolling the area, which is seen as an insurgent stronghold.

Residents cowered behind closed doors as both sides traded barrages of artillery rounds and heavy machinegun fire.

"The mortars were coming from every direction but two landed in our neighbourhood, killing three people and wounding at least six others," local man Fawsiyo Abshir told Reuters by telephone.

The insurgents have stepped up attacks in recent weeks against the government and its Ethiopian allies, who ousted a hardline Islamist group from Mogadishu just over a year ago.

Local rights workers say battles in the capital killed some 6,500 people last year -- and at least 292 in the last month.

An estimated 2 million residents have been forced from their homes in the coastal city since January 2007, they say.

There was also violence on Thursday in Mogadishu's sprawling Bakara Market, the scene of many of the clashes.

"Insurgents hurled at least four grenades at police who were searching shops," said one market trader who asked not to be named. "The police opened fire and all businesses closed."

The trader said the body of a young girl was seen in the area after the chaos subsided, but that it was not clear whether she had been killed by the grenade blasts or by police bullets.

A police spokesman, Abdulahi Ibrahim Omar, denied that any officers had been attacked in Bakara on Thursday. But he said they had carried out a successful operation there, seizing weapons and explosives that were stockpiled by the insurgents. (Writing by Daniel Wallis; Editing by Giles Elgood)

SOURCE: Reuters, February 21, 2008

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