Saturday, May 9, 2009

At least 12 killed in Somalia Clashes
MOGADISHU, May 8 (Reuters) -

At least 12 people were killed and scores wounded in clashes between Somalia's rebels and pro-government militias in the latest fighting in the anarchic Horn of Africa country, witnesses and militia said on Friday.

President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's government is struggling against a powerful insurgency and trying to woo other rebels over to his administration, seen by many as the best hope to restore peace after 18 years of war.

Al Shabaab fighters and those of an Islamist group loyal to the government exchanged mortar and anti-aircraft fire late on Thursday along an industrial road in the Somali capital, residents said.

"The stubborn opposition attacked our fighters and the government soldiers on our side," Sheikh Abdirahim Isse Adow, a spokesman for the pro-government Islamic Courts Union, told Reuters by telephone.

• "We killed eight of them and injured 30 others in one spot.
• I am sure more died. We also captured an anti-aircraft missile mounted on a battle wagon from them.
• From our side, four died and six others were injured. Innocent civilians were also injured."

Al Shabaab officials were not available for comment.

Residents said they saw at least 16 bodies and hospital sources said 55 people were injured in the fighting.

"We have no hope of peace ... I have not seen battle wagons fighting in Mogadishu for years," said resident Halima Ali.

In another incident in central Somalia, al Shabaab captured 200 new recruits heading for police training in Mogadishu, a local official said."Al Shabaab disappeared with them into the jungle and blindfolded them.

These recruits were not armed but I think they will not be killed," said Mohamed Barqadle, chairman of Buloburde district in the central region of Hiran.

(Reporting by Abdi Sheikh, Abdi Guled and Ibrahim Mohamed; Writing by Jack Kimball; Editing by Andrew Dobbie)

The Rest @ Revoultion Islam

0 comments:

Somalia Bombers Kill 21 Street Cleaning Women

MOGADISHU, Somalia (CNN) -- A roadside bombing in Somalia's capital killed 21 women who were cleaning rubbish from a southern Mogadishu street on Sunday morning, a hospital official said.

The bomb blast wounded another 46 people, most of them Somali women who had gathered to clean Maka Al Mukarama Road in southern Mogadishu's Kilometer 4 district, according to Medina Hospital director Dr. Dahir Dhere.

"It suddenly turned the area into a carnage, scattering body parts of the street cleaners into a large area," said witness Asha Ise Gedi. "There were pools of blood everywhere. I have never seen such mass killing."

"They were innocent poor mothers or sisters," Gedi said. "Why did they deserve this?"
It is unclear who is behind the attack.

• Mogadishu Mayor Mohamed Omar Habeb Mohamed Dhere, who was recently fired by the country's prime minister, blamed the Islamic Courts Union for waging the attack.
• But the head of the Islamist insurgent group, Abid Rahim Ise Adow, denied any involvement and blamed Somalia's government for orchestrating the attack. \

The victims were participating in a program that allows Somali women to work as street cleaners in exchange for food. The United Nations' World Food Program organized the program, which began last year and is administered by Mogadishu's regional authority.

On Saturday, two-thirds of the Somali government ministers announced their resignations, blaming Prime Minister Nur Hassan Nur Ade's "dictatorship," which they said included his firing of Mogadishu's mayor.

Nur Ade said he suspects the mass resignations were aimed at weakening implementation of the peace agreement between Somalia's transitional government and the opposition Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia.
He said he had no plans to resign.

CNN's Alan Duke and journalists Mohamed Amin Adow and Abdi

The Rest @ CNN