More than a dozen gunmen attacked two police bases in Mogadishu early on Wednesday with rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs), sparking fire fights that killed at least two people, witnesses and police said.
The attacks came just hours after a land mine exploded on Tuesday night, prompting another gun battle that witnesses said killed eight people. A government spokesperson said he had heard about the civilian deaths but he declined to comment.
Insurgents, along with clan militiamen, have been battling government and allied Ethiopian forces since they drove an Islamic movement, known as the Council of Islamic Courts, from Mogadishu six months ago. More than 1 000 civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands have been displaced.
Wednesday’s attacks started at about midnight in southern Mogadishu’s Tribunka Square.
”About 15 men armed with rocket-propelled grenade [launchers] and machine guns fired RPGs at the base before a heavy exchange of gunfire,” said Gacal Yusuf, a night watchman at a nearby house.
Regional police Commissioner Ali Said said a police officer was killed in the attack.
The second attack was around the same time in northern Mogadishu, and a civilian was killed, police said.
”They attacked us and we fended them off,” police officer Mohamed Omar said. ”A civilian was caught in the crossfire.”
Somalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned against each another, defending clan fiefdoms. The government was formed in 2004 with the help of the United Nations, but has struggled to assert any real control.
In recent months, fighters linked to the Council of Islamic Courts have vowed to launch an Iraq-style insurgency unless Somalia becomes an Islamic state.
Tuesday’s land-mine attack was believed to have targeted an Ethiopian convoy, police and witnesses said.
Abdishakur Abdi Rahman, who was driving a bus that was passing as the blast went off, said the Ethiopians opened fire on his vehicle after the blast.
”The explosion occurred as the Ethiopians were passing us; then they opened fire on us,” he said. ”Two passengers were killed and my conductor was wounded.”
Haji Mohamud Igaal told the Associated Press that his three teenage relatives and three others also were killed.
The account could not be confirmed; Ethiopian troops do not talk to the press. Somali government spokesperson Abdi Haji Goobdoon said: ”I heard about the land mine targeting the Ethiopians and the civilian casualties but I cannot comment.”
Also on Tuesday, the government offered amnesty to former members of the courts, saying it was a sign of goodwill ahead of a planned peace conference.
”The president has approved a proposal offering amnesty to militias who have been fighting the authorities for months and to release former fighters from jail,” said Somali Justice Minister Hasan Dhimbil Farah, reading from a statement signed by President Abdullahi Yusuf.
It was not clear how many prisoners would be released or when.
Farah said the amnesty would not affect those with ”direct links with the internationally wanted terrorists and those who continue to pursue violence”.
A leading member of the Islamic courts, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, said government officials are the true criminals. — Sapa-AP