Mogadishu – The death toll in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, has risen to over 50 after the heaviest fighting so far this year. Islamist insurgents, backed by foreign fighters, continue to battle pro-government militias, witnesses and media reports said Monday.

 

Radio Garowe said that insurgent groups al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam had over the last few days gained ground from the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), a militia that is now supporting the new moderate Islamic regime.

 

Some 160 people were injured in the fierce fighting. Fifteen people died in one single attack, when a shell hit a mosque.

 

“Fifteen people perished in one spot at the mosque after a heavy shell landed,” Abdinasir Suufi, a resident near Abdala and Awareera mosque, told the German Press Agency dpa. “Some of them were blown into pieces … the area was covered in blood and human flesh.”

 

Other civilians died as their apartments were hit by bullets and grenades. Witnesses told

Comments

comments