 HEAVY fighting in the Somalian capital Mogadishu killed at least 20 people yesterday, with an Islamic militia battling forces that have challenged the clerics' growing power. | "Challenge our growing power, will you? That's downright unIslamic. Take *that*, apostates!" |
The 20 dead included civilians and combatants, killed in the fighting or in the crossfire, medical workers, militia commanders and witnesses said. More than 63 militiamen and civilians, including a three-month-old boy, were wounded in the clashes in northern Mogadishu, said doctors at the Medina and Keysaney hospitals. | Hmmm. No holy men are listed among the deaders. I'm sure that's just a coincidence, or maybe an oversight. |
Islamic militiamen, wearing civilian clothing and hiding their weapons, travelled in public buses to a checkpoint in a residential neighbourhood controlled by a member of a new alliance of warlords and armed businessmen, jumped out of the vehicles and seized control of three trucks mounted with machine guns there. Both sides then brought in reinforcements. The two sides used rocket-propelled grenades, anti-aircraft guns, machine guns, assault rifles and hand grenades. Dozens fled their homes. | The Lions of Islam® vs. The Werewolves of the Apocolypse®. May all their boils fester. |
Fighters loyal to members of the alliance gradually gained the upper hand.
| Late breaking scores from the Somalia Sports Desk: |
Two days of fierce clashes in Mogadishu between an Islamic militia and forces that have challenged clerics' growing power have killed at least 60 people, according to medical workers.
At least 20 people were killed in fighting Thursday, while the toll from Wednesday was 40, said Dr. Abdi Ibrahim, citing figures gathered from hospitals in Mogadishu by the city's doctors' association. At least 10 combatants were killed at the front line, said Abdulkadir Ahmed, who saw the dead while fleeing his home there.
A passenger bus was hit by a mortar round, killing five civilians. Gunmen shot dead two passengers in another public bus. Militiamen killed a man who denied them permission to hide behind his house. Two people were killed when a mortar shell exploded at their house, other witnesses said. Sporadic gunshots that began early Thursday escalated into heavier fighting later in the day, with the sound of exploding mortars and gunfire ringing in northeastern Mogadishu, residents said. | Ah, Mogadishu in springtime |
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