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/ 25 January 2008
Islamist insurgents briefly seized control of Somalia’s biggest military airfield on Friday and looted weapons, witnesses and an Islamist commander said. Muktar Ali Robow, leader of the al-Shabab rebel militia, told a local radio station his forces also captured government troops during the raid on Baledogle, about 100km west of the capital, Mogadishu.
Somali gunmen kidnapped two Libyan diplomats in Mogadishu’s busy Bakara market on Saturday, a driver for the two men said. ”Ten men with pistols in their hands surrounded us. They seized the two diplomats and left with the car,” the driver, who declined to give his name for fear of reprisal, said.
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/ 24 December 2007
A first contingent of 100 peacekeepers from Burundi deployed in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Sunday, hours after fighting between Islamist rebels and government forces killed at least four people. The arrival of the soldiers marked the first phase of long-delayed support for 1 600 Ugandan troops.
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/ 12 November 2007
Somali and Ethiopian troops shut down Mogadishu’s main market in a search for Islamist insurgents on Sunday after fighting that has killed at least 60 people and driven tens of thousands from the Somali capital. Rights groups have criticised the Ethiopians for failing to distinguish between civilian and insurgent targets.
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/ 9 November 2007
Corpses were scattered on Mogadishu streets on Friday after overnight fighting between Somali insurgents and Ethiopian troops that killed 12 people. The bodies of the dead could be seen in the city’s northern Sqa Holaha neighbourhood, where insurgents dragged dead Ethiopians through the streets on Thursday.
Somalia’s prime minister has reached a truce with Mogadishu’s dominant clan, some of whose fighters had supported Islamist-led insurgents in battles with government troops and Ethiopian forces earlier this year. Hawiye clan elders met Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi amid tight security on Monday in the capital, which has been rocked by insecurity since January.
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/ 14 September 2007
Gun battles in Mogadishu killed at least six people early on Friday and residents said they feared Ramadan would bring no let up in a months-long insurgency that has battered the Somali capital.
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/ 13 September 2007
Somalia’s government on Thursday said a new opposition movement vowing war on Ethiopian troops in the Horn of Africa nation was a ”terrorist alliance” posing no real threat. Somali opposition figures forged the Alliance for the Liberation of Somalia on Wednesday in a move analysts said may boost Islamist-led insurgents fighting the interim government.