All sides in the Somali capital's ferocious fighting have committed serious abuses, with indiscriminate attacks on civilian neighborhoods and hospitals, a leading human rights group said Monday. "None of the parties has taken—as international law requires—all feasible precautions to spare the civilian population from the effects of attacks," New York-based Human Rights Watch said in its 113-page report."There is strong evidence that the indiscriminate bombardment of populated neighborhoods by Ethiopian forces was intentional," the report added. "Commanders who knowingly or recklessly order indiscriminate attacks are responsible for war crimes." Ethiopian denied the allegations.
Somali officials have also denied being behind abuses, blaming "terrorist" insurgents and saying they must be eliminated to pacify Mogadishu.
Violations by the insurgents include indiscriminate firing of mortar rounds into civilian areas; deployment of forces in densely populated neighborhoods; targeted killings of civilian officials of the transitional Somali government; and summary executions and mutilation of the bodies of captured combatants, the report said. "The insurgency placed civilians at grave risk by deploying among them," said Kenneth Roth, executive director for Human Rights Watch.
Somali government forces failed to provide effective warnings to civilians in combat zones, looted property, impeded relief efforts for displaced people and mistreated dozens of people detained in mass arrests, the report said.