SOMALIA: Somali Islamists target soldiers, 11 civilians die
Posted by warvictims on September 24, 2008
by Abdi Sheikh and Abdi Mohamed
REUTERS
MOGADISHU, Sept 24 (Reuters) – Islamist insurgents attacked an African peacekeeping base in Mogadishu, leaving 11 civilians dead as residents again took the brunt, witnesses said on Wednesday.
The violence, extreme even by the standards of Somalia’s 17-year civil conflict, sent residents fleeing the city.
“We have no hope now and I think this is the end of Mogadishu,” mother-of-seven Fatuma Kassim said, joining a stream of Somalis escaping the city on Wednesday morning.
The coastal capital shook for several hours on Tuesday night as insurgents shelled an African Union (AU) peacekeeping base from various sides, prompting heavy return fire and tank incursions into a market area viewed as a rebel stronghold.
The AU, whose 2,200 Ugandan and Burundian peacekeepers have done little to quell the war, said it suffered no casualties.
But once again, Mogadishu residents caught in the melee were counting their dead.
“A big shell killed five people after it landed on them as they ran to take cover,” witness Osman Farah said. “They ran from their house, which was weak, but unfortunately they were all crushed. We have just collected their corpses.”
Another resident, Aden Ismail, said a missile landed on a group of refugees in a ruined former college.
“A very big mortar landed on our IDP camp inside the polytechnic building, killing two men on the spot,” he said.
“Then another mortar dropped and injured seven others. We could not take them to hospital because there was gunfire everywhere. We have carried three injured children on our shoulders and three men in wheelbarrows this morning.”
Since the start of last year, Islamist insurgents have waged an Iraq-style rebellion of roadside bombs, assassinations and artillery attacks against the U.N.-backed interim government and its Ethiopian military allies.
Nearly 10,000 civilians have died.
In recent days, Islamists fighters have focused attacks against the AU peacekeepers in what analysts say may be a tactic to deter any further foreign intervention. The Islamists view the AU force as propping up the government.
Islamist spokesman Abdirahim Isse Adow said Tuesday night’s attack on the AU was retribution for the shelling of a market earlier in the week, which he blamed on the peacekeepers.
Thirty civilians died in Bakara market on Monday, with all sides blaming each other for bombing the crowded area.
“It is clear that the Islamists are about to take control of the country. The government and Ethiopian troops control only a small portion of the city let alone the country,” he said.
“If the AU force shells our people and market, we shall continue fighting them.”
About one million Somalis live as internal refugees in what aid agencies call one of the world’s worst humanitarian crises.
Drought and high food prices have compounded the effect of the conflict on a traumatised population.
With kidnappings and assassinations of aid workers rife, relief agencies face a dangerous task to help Somalis. (Writing by Andrew Cawthorne; Editing by Louise Ireland)
Source: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LO13634.htm
