Two large blasts aimed at a convoy of Ethiopian troops heading toward the capital prompted soldiers to open fire on Monday. At least two Somalis were shot to death, witnesses said.
The explosions south of Mogadishu could be heard a kilometre away, and ”shook all the buildings nearby”, resident Mohamed Ahmed said.
It was not immediately clear whether any Ethiopian troops died in the blast, but two Somalis were shot dead and several others wounded when the troops fired on passers-by following the attack, witnesses said.
Government and Ethiopian officials did not immediately comment.
”I have seen two dead Somali bodies on the road; they were killed by Ethiopian soldiers,” resident Batulo Ali said by telephone from Wanlaweyn district in the southern Lower Shabelle region, about 90km from Mogadishu.
A local farmer, Mayow Ali, said Ethiopian troops sealed off the area immediately after the attack and prevented Somalis from leaving their houses.
The impoverished Horn of Africa nation is in the grip of a conflict between Islamic insurgents and the shaky transitional government and its Ethiopian allies. Thousands of Somalis have died in the fighting since December, when the Islamic alliance was ousted from Mogadishu and southern Somalia by Ethiopian soldiers supporting the government.
In October alone, 155 Somalis were killed and 281 wounded, a local human rights group said in a monthly report issued on Monday. The Elman Human Rights Group also said more than half of Mogadishu’s two million residents have fled.
Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when rival warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and turned on each other. The chaotic nation is awash with weapons and divided among squabbling clans. — Sapa-AP
Associated Press writer Salad Duhul contributed to this report