The Somali government is trying to create a Baghdad-style safe ”Green Zone” in Mogadishu to protect senior officials and foreign visitors from insurgent attacks, Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said on Tuesday. In an interview with Reuters, the Somali premier also accused United States-based Human Rights Watch of ”abusing” his government.
Gunmen shot dead a popular Somali radio journalist and talk-show host outside his independent FM station on Saturday in an apparent assassination, colleagues said. Mahad Ahmed Elmi’s broadcasts on Horn Afrik radio had upset both the government and Islamist insurgents. There was no indication as to who had killed him.
Gunmen plundered computers and bags of sugar from a Coca-Cola plant in Mogadishu on Friday during a lull in fighting between allied Somali-Ethiopian troops and insurgents, a local manager said. The unidentified group, who were wearing uniforms, commandeered 12 trucks to drive away the booty seized in the overnight looting spree.
Ethiopian tanks supporting the Somali government pounded insurgent positions in Mogadishu on Thursday and Somalia’s prime minister declared significant gains after a nine-day offensive. Following the latest attack, Ali Mohamed Gedi said ”most fighting” had ended and allied Somali-Ethiopian troops were clearing ”pockets of resistance”.
Shelling and artillery fire shook northern Mogadishu on Tuesday, the seventh day of fighting between allied Somali-Ethiopian forces and Islamist gunmen that has killed hundreds of people. The interim government has said the offensive will continue until it wipes out an insurgency frustrating its attempt to restore central rule.
Rotting corpses lay in the open and explosions shook Mogadishu on Sunday for a fifth day of battles between insurgents and allied Somali-Ethiopian troops that have killed at least 230 people, locals said. In an ever-growing exodus, hundreds more Somalis trudged out of Mogadishu on Sunday.
Battles raged across Mogadishu on Saturday, killing at least 73 people and swelling a vast exodus from an escalating war between militant Islamists and allied Somali-Ethiopian troops, witnesses said. Residents and medical staff interviewed by the media confirmed the latest deaths on Saturday — adding to an estimated 131 others from the previous three days’ violence.
Sporadic shelling and gunfire shook Mogadishu on Friday, but Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf downplayed this week’s violence, which residents say has killed at least 30 people and wounded scores more. Bloodied patients screamed and doctors struggled to tend to the wounded crammed into Mogadishu’s Madina Hospital after four days of clashes.
Renewed violence between Ethiopian troops and Somali insurgents killed at least five people in Mogadishu, residents said on Wednesday. Heavy shelling rocked the southern area of the seaside capital on Tuesday night, and some mortars fell close to the presidential palace.
One explosion and some gunfire sounded across Mogadishu on Monday morning, but the Somali capital was generally quieter after four days of non-stop battles pitting Ethiopian and Somali troops against insurgents. Residents say several hundred people have died since soldiers launched an offensive against the rebels on Thursday.