Heavy fighting erupted on Wednesday in the Somali capital, killing at least 14 people in an escalation of violence that also saw angry residents attacking the bodies of dead soldiers.
Residents burned the bodies of two soldiers and dragged another through the streets, recalling the similar fate of United States troops in a failed United Nations-backed peace operation in the early 1990s.
Heavy weaponry duels across southern Mogadishu killed six uniformed soldiers and eight civilians after insurgents opened fire on former Defence Ministry headquarters where Ethiopian troops, backing the Somali government, are based.
Hundreds of angry civilians celebrated in the Baruwa neighbourhood as they burned the bodies of two of the dead soldiers.
The crowd shouted: ”You and Ethiopians will die”, ”Down, Down with Somali troops”, and ”We will burn you alive”.
Nearby, a woman carrying a machete shouted obscenities against Ethiopian and Somali troops while stepping on the body of another dead soldier being dragged by a rope tied to his foot, an Agence France-Presse (AFP) correspondent said.
It was unclear if the soldiers were Somali or Ethiopian.
Elsewhere, civilians were caught off-guard in stray gunfire and shelling after Ethiopian-Somali troops responded to the attack in a bid to take over areas believed to be occupied by insurgents, residents said.
”Three people were killed after shells landed in their house. I saw the bodies and one of them is my relative,” resident Abdulkadir Hassan told AFP.
”So far, I have seen four bodies of people killed and several others wounded,” said Abdullahi Ahmed Sheikh, a resident of Shukri area.
Another resident, Mohamed Ali Sheke, said: ”I have seen three government forces killed in Hilweyne military camp. Their bodies are still lying in the area.”
”A stray bullet killed my neighbour and wounded five others, one of them a child,” added Muhubo Moalim Dahir, a resident of Al-Baraka area.
Doctors in the capital’s largest hospital, Medina Hospital, said they expected a huge number of casualties.
”So far, we have 25 wounded in the hospital — they include civilians and fighters from both sides,” said medic Mohamed Ali.
The clashes, pitting Ethiopian-Somali forces against masked gunmen — suspected Islamist insurgents — came a day after Somali troops and African Union peacekeepers reinforced their deployment in the seaside capital.
A planned 8 000-strong African force aims to help Somali government troops regain control.
The spokesperson for the AU forces said that they had not been involved in the fighting.
”So far, we have not been counter-attacking at all. We are still in the phase of settling down the whole operation,” said captain Paddy Ankunda, in charge of about 1 500 Ugandan AU troops already deployed.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Ethiopian forces on Wednesday pulled out from the presidential palace, Villa Somalia, as Somali troops and AU peacekeepers took over around the popular target for insurgent attacks.
”The government troops are now capable of dealing with the situation with help from the AU. Peace is gradually coming to Somalia, but not overnight,” said Yamene Gabremickael, the commander of the Ethiopian forces in the area, as violence escalated in the capital.
Dozens of people have died since January when joint Somali-Ethiopian forces drove an Islamist movement out of south and central Somalia, including the capital, but insurgents and allied factions have responded with deadly guerrilla warfare.
The AU mission is the first international peacekeeping venture since US troops led an ill-fated, UN-backed peace operation in the early 1990s.
During the first six months of that mission many civilians, 24 Pakistani peacekeepers and 18 US forces were killed in battles with local militia.
Factional bloodletting has wracked Somalia since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre, creating a platform for a civil war that has defied more than 14 peace-making attempts. — AFP
