Forced exodus?

[xiinfaniin]

Scores of residents flee as Somali, Ethiopian troops battle rebels in Mogadishu

 

Thursday, March 22, 2007

 

 

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Scores of residents fled their homes Thursday during a second day of fighting between Islamic insurgents and Somali and Ethiopian troops. There was no report on casualties.

 

Residents boarded minivans or taxis to move to safer parts of the capital or leave it altogether. Poorer ones carried belongings on their heads and in plastic bags.

 

Insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and heavy machine-guns. Government troops responded with artillery and machine gun-fire in the early morning battles in northern and southern parts of Mogadishu, witnesses said.

 

Hundreds of government troops were deployed to reinforce troops who fought insurgents Wednesday, said Fathi Mohamed Aden, a clan elder who saw the fighting take place in his northern Mogadishu neighbourhood.

 

Both sides then engaged in a fierce gunbattle, he said.

 

In a southern Mogadishu neighbourhood, gunmen attacked government and Ethiopian troops based at the former Defence Ministry building, said a witness, Jamila **** Roble.

 

The fighting follows Wednesday's battles during which insurgents dragged the corpses of six soldiers - four Somalis and two of their Ethiopian allies - through the streets of Mogadishu and set the bodies on fire, drawing crowds who threw rocks and kicked the smouldering remains.

 

The scene was similar to one in Mogadishu in 1993 that grabbed the world's attention when militiamen shot down a U.S. Black Hawk helicopter during an attempt to capture a warlord and dragged around dead American soldiers.

 

The Clinton administration pulled out U.S. troops, and UN peacekeepers soon followed suit, leaving Somalia to years of anarchy.

 

"The fighting has meant the end of my life and happiness," said 37-year old Shamsa Abdikadir Wehliye, whose son was killed in Wednesday's fighting.

 

"I lost two sons in 1993 when the U.S. troops fought battles with the Somali militia and now I have lost the last one."

 

She spoke at Medina Hospital while tending her 50-year old husband, who was injured by shrapnel in the previous day's fighting.

 

Among the evacuees was a mother of seven who said she was forced to leave behind her husband and two of her children because they were too weak to travel. Hadija Mad Osman said her husband was injured by shrapnel when a mortar exploded near them, and the children had diarrhea.

 

"I have left my husband and two of my children lying in a makeshift house near the football stadium," Osman said. "I do not know where I am going."

 

Wednesday saw some of the heaviest fighting in Mogadishu since a fundamentalist militia known as the Council of Islamic Courts was driven from the capital in December in an Ethiopian-led offensive that had U.S. support.

 

But the group has promised to launch an Iraq-style guerrilla war, and mortar attacks pound the capital nearly every day.

 

The leader of the Council of Islamic Courts, Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, told the British Broadcasting Corp.'s Somali service that the insurgents and residents of Mogadishu were justified in fighting the Somali government troops and their Ethiopian allies, but denied he was involved in it.

 

Speaking in a rare interview late Wednesday since his group's ouster, Aweys said he and other Islamic leaders were safe and living in Somalia, though he declined to disclose his location. He said that he considers African Union peacekeepers already in the country as enemies.

 

"We were invaded and no one respected us while we were in power and were ready to negotiate," Aweys said in a satellite phone interview.

 

Source: AP, Mar 22, 2007

[General Duke]

Qax balaaran oo ka socda Xaafadaha Koonfurta Muqdisho

Last Updated::2007-03-22 17:29:14

 

Muqdisho:- Kumanaan dad ah ayaa isaga baxay qaar kamid ah xaafadaha Muqdisho oo ay dowladu sheegtay in ay hawlagalo ka fulineyso.

 

Qaxan ayaa si weyn looga dareemay saaka arooryadii xaafada Jamhuuriya iyo xaafadaha ku dhaw dhaw oo uu maanta dagaal kale ka bilowday.

 

Dadka ayaa isaga baxay guryahooda kadib markii uu shalay Ra'iisul Wasaaraha Soomaaliya Cali Maxamed Geedi uu ugu baaqay in ay shacabka isaga baxaan dhamaan goobaha ay dagaalada ka socdaan.

 

Shacabka ayaa la arkayey ayagoo gadiid kala gedisan ku raranaya wixii ay kala bixi kareen guryahooda, ayadoo inta badan dadka la qaxinayo ay u badan yihiin waayeelka, caruurta iyo dadka kale ee aan shuqulka ku lahayn dagaalada.

 

Madaafiicda Hoobiyaha iyo kuwa kale ee culus ayaa saaka laga maqlayaa xaafada Jamhuuriya oo hada ka go'an inta kale ee xaafadaha Muqdisho halkaasi oo ay isku herdiyeen saaka markale ciidamada Dowlada iyo kooxaha kasoo horjeeda.

 

Wasiir kuxigeenka Wasaarada Gaashaandhiga oo maanta shir jaraa'iid ku qabtay madaxtooyada ayaa sheegay in dagaalka uu socon doono inta magaalada Muqdisho laga xasilinayo.

 

Hadalkaasi kasoo baxay Salaad Cali Jeele Wasiir kuxigeenka Gaashaandhiga ayaa astaan u ah abaabulka balaaran oo ay ciidamada dowlada wadaan ayadoo shacabka ay isaga fogaanayaan goobaha ay bartilmaameedka ka dhigteen kooxo afka soo duubta oo weeraro ka fulinaya gudaha xaafada koonfurta Muqdisho.

 

Maxamed Cabdi

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