Deadly clashes hit Somali capital

05/09/2007| IslamWeb

At least six people have been killed and many wounded in fighting between government troops and fighters in the Somali capital of Mogadishu.

The gun battles began early Wednesday morning, locking residents inside their homes.

"Two men were killed, one was a waiter and the other was the brother of a restaurant owner," said Hamdi Ahmed Ali, a resident close to the Bakara market where government troops exchanged gunfire with fighters.

Another resident said that he saw bodies lying on the streets from the top of his house.

"I saw three dead men and six wounded people but I could not go out of the house," Farah Aden Omar told Reuters news agency by telephone.

Many wounded

Medics at the Madina Hospital had received 29 wounded people, one of whom died.

Somali police said that an operation was under way.

Abduwahid Muhammad, a police spokesman, said: "This operation is aimed at cracking down [on] fighters who have been killing people in recent months."

Since Ethiopian and Somali troops defeated the Union of Islamic Courts, a Muslim militia that briefly controlled the capital early this year, Mogadishu has seen a rapid rise in violence, including an increase in crime targeting civilians.

Government forces and AU peacekeepers have failed to quell the violence that has killed hundreds of people and has prevented the delivery of aid to displaced civilians in and around the capital.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Somali fighter (archive)