Five civilians killed in Mogadishu clashes

MOGADISHU — At least five civilians were killed Friday in Mogadishu during clashes between Somali government forces and Islamist insurgents, as both sides edged closer to a major battle.

The skirmish broke out when fighters led by the Al Qaeda-inspired Shebab movement opened fire on government troops stationed in the capital’s northern Bondhere district, drawing heavy retaliatory shelling.
“The Shebab militants and their allies fired on our forces near Florenza, in Bondhere district, and in the Shibis area this morning,” Colonel Mohamed Ali, a senior government security officer, said.
“It was a kind of provocation but our forces defended their positions, responding with heavy machine-guns and anti-aircraft weapons,” he said, adding that two of his men were wounded.
Medics and witnesses said five civilians were killed and 20 others wounded in the crossfire.
“The crossfire and stray mortars hit civilian-populated areas in northern Mogadishu and our ambulance teams have collected five bodies and 20 other injured civilians,” Ali Muse, head of Mogadishu’s ambulance services, told AFP.
Abdullahi Dhubow, an eyewitness, said he saw two civilians, including a woman, die in the shelling on his Karan neighbourhood.
Several other witnesses corroborated the five civilian deaths.
Hundreds of families have fled Mogadishu in recent days, ahead of a planned nationwide military offensive by the government and its African Union backers against the Shebab-led insurgency.
The Shebab control around 80 percent of southern and central Somalia and since his election a year ago, President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and his administration have been pinned down in a small area of the capital.