3 govt soldiers killed in Mogadishu

By Aweys Yusuf | September 24, 2007

The gunbattles late on Sunday took place in northern Mogadishu, a stronghold of Islamist insurgents fighting what they see as Ethiopia’s occupation of their Horn of Africa nation.

Clan militia have also joined the ranks resisting efforts by the government to restore effective central rule to Somalia after warlords ousted a military dictator in 1991.

“Three government soldiers, including the unit leader, were killed in the fighting and three others were wounded,” said a policeman, who did not want to be identified.

He also said a government technical — Somalia’s version of a tank — was burned.

Allied Somali-Ethiopian troops who ousted a rival Islamist movement in the New Year were out in force at the scene of the battles early Monday, the police source said.

“We admitted four government soldiers last night. They were wounded in last night’s gun battle,” Dahir Dhere, a medical officer at Medina hospital, told Reuters.

Last month, Somali opposition leaders said their newly formed “Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia” would refuse talks with the government unless Ethiopia pulled its troops from Somalia.

The group also demanded the withdrawal of 1,600 Ugandan peacekeepers, the vanguard of a planned 8,000-strong African Union (AU) mission to replace the Ethiopians.

Paddy Ankunda, the spokesman for the Ugandan AU contingent, told Reuters on Monday its modest successes should be an embarrassment to countries that have failed to send forces.

In a separate incident, unknown gunmen killed a local prominent businessman in southern Mogadishu on Sunday, witnesses said.

“The gunmen entered his shop and forced him outside where they shot him dead,” one witness said.

Last week, a U.N. independent expert on human rights said Mogadishu residents were more afraid than ever before of being killed and arrested in the city which for 16 years has been a byword for chaos and violence.

Somali fighting kills 5

MOGADISHU (News24) – Battles raged in the Somali capital Mogadishu overnight, killing at least five people, witnesses said on Monday.

Insurgents fought government troops face-to-face near Mogadishu University, launching rocket propelled grenades and spraying bullets in an exchange of fire that residents said was the worst they had seen in weeks.

“I could not stand the sound of the shelling. It was too heavy. This fighting will not end soon,” said Mohamoud Dahir, a resident.

Witnesses said three of the five people killed were wearing uniforms and may have been government soldiers, but this could not be confirmed.

The fighting came days after an anti-government group based in Asmara, Eritrea, known as the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia swore to purge the country of Ethiopian troops, who have said they will remain in Mogadishu until the city is secured.

The transitional government has been unable to assert its authority over the bullet-scarred capital, and bloodletting has been the norm since the administration’s Ethiopian-backed troops swept into Mogadishu in January.

Somalia was plunged into anarchy after the 1991 toppling of dictator Mohammed Siad Barre and effective central rule has since not been cemented.