Artillery battles between allied Somali-Ethiopian troops and Islamist insurgents killed at least 12 people on Sunday around Mogadishu’s sprawling Bakara Market, residents said.
One witness said at least 20 mortar bombs exploded in the heart of Somalia’s coastal capital as the rebels attacked advancing Ethiopian forces with barrages of rockets.
”Ethiopian and government soldiers wanted to raid Bakara this morning but the insurgents confronted them, firing rockets,” shopkeeper Ali Osman told Reuters by telephone.
”The troops responded by pounding the market with mortar shells … one blast killed nine people, including two children and four women, in the market.”
Another local man, Farah Osman, said three other civilians were killed when a shell detonated near a Bakara bank.
The rebels are waging an Iraq-style insurgency of roadside bombings, ambushes and assassinations against the fragile interim government and its Ethiopian military allies.
At least 28 people have been killed in the rubble-strewn capital in the last three days, residents say. The fighting has triggered a humanitarian crisis that aid workers say may be the worst in Africa. – Reuters 2008