Sunday, October 26, 2008
A land mine attack killed three soldiers and three civilians in northern Mogadishu, while leaving three soldiers wounded, residen Mohamed Abdi said.
No one has yet claimed the responsibility for the attack in the capital, but targeted blasts and assassinations of officials are common in Somalia, where Islamic insurgents have vowed to fight an Iraq-style insurgency against the weak and corrupt U.N.-supported government.
In a separate incident, insurgents ambushed a column of troops in Saydheelow, a town in southern Somalia, killing five soldiers and wounding 15, town resident Hassan Kerow said.
Islamic militia spokesman Sheik Mukhtar Abu Robow said he lost one fighter in the incident in which many soldiers were killed, but he could not say exactly how many.
The Bay region's deputy mayor, Shine Moallim Nor, said only one soldier was killed in the ambush. Officials routinely under-report casualties in Somalia.
Saydheelow is only 10 kilometers from the city of Baidoa, where the Somali parliament is in session.
On Saturday, government officials had said they regained control in both Bay and Bakool regions after heavy fighting with Islamist fighters.
Somali soldiers and their Ethiopian allies ousted Islamist insurgents from the capital and much of the south in December 2006, after the Islamists had ruled those areas for the previous six months.
Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and turned on each other.
Source: AP, Oct 26, 2008