MOGADISHU — A day before the start of the holy fasting of Ramadan in the Horn of Africa country, fighting raged in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Friday, August 21, killing at least 22 people.
“We have seen 17 dead people and taken 40 others to hospitals,” senior ambulance official Ali Musa told Reuters.
Five people were also killed when a mortar shell hit a busy restaurant in Mogadishu’s sprawling Bakara Market.
The fighting erupted around the city’s strategic K4 junction after militants from Al-Shebab group launched a pre-dawn attack against on government troops and African peacekeepers.
A police commander said the militants attacked their positions, sparking a fire exchange that also wounded 22 civilians.
“There were clashes between the Somali forces and the insurgents. They attacked our base near Taleh and we killed several of them,” Hussein Mohamed Ali told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Fighting has been raging across central and southern Somalia as pro-government militia try to seize towns from Al-Shebab and its Hizbul Islam allied militia.
At least 33 people were killed at Bula Burde in the southern Hiran region on Thursday, and 12 more died when Al-Shebab militants drove pro-government gunmen out of Bulahawa.
Somalia has sunk into deadly violence after militants of Al-Shebab and Hizbul Islam launched a deadly offensive in May against the internationally-backed government of President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
Hundreds of civilians are believed to have been killed and wounded, according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
More than 200,000 people have also been displaced since then.
Traumatized
Al-Shebab militant group vowed to fight on until the defeat of the Somali government.
“The apostate government wants to legitimise the invading forces and their atrocities in Somalia, but I tell you that our holy warriors will never lay down arms until they liberate the country from the enemy of Allah,” spokesman Ali Mohamoud Rage said.
He also called for intensified attacks against the government during Ramadan, which will start in Somalia on Saturday.
“With the help of Allah we are winning in the battlefields so far,” he said.
“I call upon the mujahideens and Somali people to benefit from the holy month of Ramadan and attack the foreign forces and their apostate government.”
The deadly fighting has left helpless Somali civilians between the rock and the hard place.
“Everyone is traumatised by the bombs because they’re hitting heavily populated parts of town,” said Ibrahim Moalim.
Adding to the carnage, residents said Ethiopian troops also fought battles on the border in Bakool region with ethnic Somali rebels from the Ogaden National Liberation Front.
Ethiopian officials could not immediately be reached for comment.
Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia in 2006 to topple the Islamic Courts Union, which brought a rare peace to the country, to install the West-backed interim government.
Since then, the country sank into deadly violence, which forced Addis Ababa to withdraw troops earlier this year.
Violence has killed more than 18,000 Somalis since the start of 2007 and driven another 1 million from their homes.
Source: IslamOnline
Photo: Fighting raged in Mogadishu one day before the fasting month of Ramadan, killing at least 22 people.
