More than 50 dead as fighting rages across SOMALIA...Gedo, Hiiraan, Cayn, Banadir

[General Duke]

Around 50 dead in clashes across Somalia

Posted: 24 February 2011 0345 hrs

 

MOGADISHU : Some 50 people, many of them fighters, were killed Wednesday in clashes across Somalia, witnesses and officials said.

 

The deaths came as Somali government forces backed by African Union troops launched a fresh offensive against Al Qaeda-inspired rebels.

 

"We have counted at least 20 civilians killed," Ali Muse, head of the Mogadishu ambulance service said.

 

Residents spoke of one dead insurgent in the capital and said Shebab fighters had also displayed five bodies they said were dead soldiers from the African Union force, bringing the toll for the capital to 26.

 

In the towns of Beledweyn and Bulohawo in central Somalia?s Galgadud region, Shebab fighters clashed with pro-government Sufi militants assisting Somali government soldiers.

 

Elders in Beledweyn said at least 11 combatants were killed. 13 other people, most of them combatants, were also killed in the town of Bulohawo.

 

- AFP /ls

[General Duke]

Somali militants display bodies of 5 dead peacekeepers, hold Burundian soldier captive

By Abdi Guled (CP) – 1 hour ago

 

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Somali militants said Wednesday they had paraded the bodies of five African Union peacekeepers killed in fighting and also were holding a soldier from Burundi captive after intense battles in the capital.

 

The fighting appeared to come amid a major push in Mogadishu by Somali troops and African Union peacekeepers against the militants. Heavy fighting had broken out over the weekend after AU troops discovered a trench used by militants to move supplies and fighters in the capital.

 

The violence started Wednesday after AU peacekeepers and Somali troops launched a dawn attack on rebel positions, seizing the former Somalia Ministry of Defence building, which had been serving as the militants' base, according to Maj. Barigye Bahoku, a spokesman for the AU troops.

 

Bahoku declined to comment on reports of heavy losses by the AU troops.

 

An al-Shabab spokesman, Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage, said that militants had killed five peacekeepers and captured one alive. He said the militants had paraded the bodies of the five men.

 

A Nairobi-based diplomat who quoted defence sources in Mogadishu said reports indicated that up to 10 African Union troops were killed and dozens were wounded in Wednesday's fighting. The diplomat said he could not be quoted by name because his organization does not allow it.

 

Somalia's prime minister, Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed, said Wednesday that government-allied troops are expanding control of the capital.

 

"Our troops have recently been in preparations for war. They started the operation today and successfully defeated the enemy," Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed told reporters. "We are requesting the world to help us in fighting the terrorists in Somalia."

 

Fighting was also reported on the Kenya-Somalia border, near the Kenyan town of Mandera. Kenya troops reportedly responded to the violence, but exact casualty figures weren't available.

 

On Monday a suicide bomber detonated an explosives-laden car at a police station in Mogadishu, killing eight people.

 

That came after African Union peacekeepers said Sunday they discovered and seized control of a mile-long trench that al-Shabab militants used to move fighters and ammunition in and out of government-held districts. The discovery of the trench provoked two days of heavy fighting in an area near the popular Bakara market, which is controlled by militants.

 

Somalia's capital, Mogadishu, has been the epicenter of the country's two decades of violence. A fully functioning government hasn't been in power since 1991.

[General Duke]

 

Somalia Prime Minister Mohamed Abdulahi Mohamed, left, speaks during a press conference at his office in Mogadishu, Somalia, as his defense minister Abdihakin Haji Fiqi, centre, sits next to him, Wednesday Feb. 23, 2011. The prime minister said Somalia military have taken control of several key positions in southern Mogadishu including the former defense ministry building from the insurgents (AP Photo/Farah Abdi Warsameh)

[Che -Guevara]

We are hellbent on destroying each other-something gotta give.

[General Duke]

^^^I told you long ago the fake religious groups were more destructive than anything we have seen in the past. Look @ Sharif Now Fighting his friends and what they have done to the people...