Monday, September 22, 2008
The latest bloodshed in the Somali capital came hours after the country's transitional federal government and the main Islamist-dominated political opposition closed a new round of talks in Djibouti.
In the first set of exchanges overnight, the insurgents attacked the bases of the African Union's Ugandan troops in the K4 and Jazeera areas at around midnight, drawing retaliatory fire from the peacekeepers.
Ugandan peacekeepers fired back, but during the exchange, said witnesses, some stray mortars hit residences in nearby neighbourhoods, killing 10 civilians.
"A mother and her five children died when a mortar hit their house," said Mohamed Husein, an elder in the area. "Minutes later, two neighbours who rushed to assist them died in the same house after another shell struck."
Witnesses also told AFP that two guards were killed by stray mortar shells in the capital's Taleh neighbourhood.
It was not clear from the witnesses' accounts whose mortars caused the deaths.
Later Monday, 19 other people died when a fresh exchange of mortar fire erupted near Mogadishu airport, where an extremist militia group has been trying to enforce an embargo on all flights.
This time the deaths were caused by shells fired from Somali government bases, witnesses said.
Insurgents had fired shells on the airport area after a commercial plane landed there, in defiance of the week-old "ban".
Somali government forces responded with mortar fire that struck several civilian homes and a busy market area, witnesses told AFP.
"Nine civilians, three of them children, died after artillery shells fired from Somali government bases hit three houses in Holwadag neighbourhood. Some of the bodies were torn to shreds," local resident Mohamed Aden Ahmed said.
Another resident, Ahmed Abdullahi, said four of the nine victims in Holwadag were from the same family.
Mortar shells also came smashing into Bakara market, the Somali capital's main trading area, killing 10 other people.
"I saw the bodies of six people who were killed near Bakara intersection. They were hit by mortar shells that landed in the market," local resident Ibrahim Yusuf said.
Shells struck another part of the market, killing another four people, witnesses said.
"Heavy artillery shells hit the shoe section of the market. Four civilians were blown to pieces," said Feisal Hashi, adding that one of the victims was a woman.
Dahir Dhere, director of Mogadishu's main Madina hospital, said more than 60 wounded civilians had been rushed in following the latest incident.
Somalia's Al-Shebab movement last week warned that all flights should cease as of September 16, arguing that the airport was an instrument of Ethiopia's military occupation of Somalia.
Nine civilians were killed last week when the landing of an AU military plane drew a salvo of mortar shells from insurgents and retaliatory fire from the Ugandans.
The airport is used for both commercial and military flights but is also the main base for the AU's Ugandan contingent.
With war-torn Somalia's roads dotted with rogue checkpoints and freelance gunmen and its waters infested with pirates, traders have warned the airport's closure would only further stifle an already agonising nation.
Ethiopian troops came to the rescue of the transitional government in late 2006 and ousted an Islamist militia that briely controlled large parts of the country.
Islamist armed groups then reverted to guerilla warfare, launching almost daily attacks against Somali forces, Ethiopian troops and AU peacekeepers.
Civilians have borne the brunt of the violence. According to international aid organisations and rights groups, at least 6,000 of them have died over the past year alone.
On Sunday, representatives from the transitional government and the main political opposition umbrella group -- the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia -- signed a statement in Djibouti.
They agreed to jointly pursue efforts to restore security in Somalia and facilitate the delivery of humanitarian assistance.
Radical elements from the Islamist camp have dismissed the Djibouti process, insisting that a complete Ethiopian withdrawal was a precondition to any negotiations.
Source: AFP, Sept 22, 2008