SOMALIA: Mortar rounds hit market in Somalia, 17 killed
Posted by warvictims on October 6, 2008
by Mohamed Olad and Elizabeth A. Kennedy
The Huffington Post
MOGADISHU, Somalia — Mortar rounds slammed into a market in Somalia’s capital on Monday, killing at least 17 people, after a failed insurgent attack on the presidential palace.
Also Monday, a remote-controlled land mine killed a Somali driver and wounded two aid workers _ an Italian and a Somali _ some 60 miles southwest of Mogadishu. The aid workers’ injuries were not critical, Dr. Abdi Rahman said.
Witnesses said those killed in the capital included a 13-year-old. The fighting began when insurgents fired mortars at the presidential palace but missed, according to military spokesman Dahir Hersi.
Al-Shabab, a radical Islamic group at the heart of the Somali insurgency, claimed responsibility for the initial attack.
Mortar shells then slammed into the Bakara Market, where people can buy everything from packets of rice and sugar to grenades and AK-47s. The government suspects insurgents use the market as a base and it often comes under fire.
Twenty-four humanitarian workers have been killed in Somalia this year. On Monday, 52 aid groups issued a joint statement calling for international help for the devastated people.
“The international community has completely failed Somali civilians,” the statement said. It appealed to the warring sides to allow aid workers unhindered access to all parts of Somalia.
Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/huff-wires/20081006/af-somalia/
