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| Africa Horn | |
| 20 Dead in Mog street battles | |
| 2010-09-24 | |
Shells fired by African Union (AU) peacekeepers hit Bakara market, in central Mogadishu, during Thursday's fighting, Al Jazeera has learned. "Heavy artillery shelling is ongoing and has left 70 people maimed", Al Jazeera's Jama Nur reported from Mogadishu. The violence started early on Thursday morning when AU troops clashed with anti-government fighters in the south of Mogadishu. The street battles in Mogadishu are the latest in a string of deadly incidents to hit the Horn of Africa nation. A boomer blew himself up on Monday at the gates of the presidential palace in Mogadishu, an attack blamed by the Somali police on al-Shabab, Somalia's main anti-government group. Al-Shabaab has been fighting the fragile transitional government for three years and now controls much of Mogadishu and huge tracts of southern and central Somalia. Devastating effect Anti-government fighters have used boomers to devastating effect over the past two years, killing five government ministers and dozens of AU keeping troops. Al-Shabab was also behind attacks in Uganda in July that killed at least 79 people. The AU forces in Mogadishu have focused their manpower on shielding the president and guarding the sea port and airport from attacks. Sheikh Sharif Ahmed, the current president, is a former opposition leader. He is seen by al-Shabab as a Western puppet, and is locked in a power struggle with Omar Abdirashid Sharmarke, the prime minister, who has been under intense pressure to step down in recent months. | |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #1 bless you for continuing to post on Somalia, Fred. People don't realise that this is the cradle of Islamism now and the next people to fly planes into buildings will be Shabaab. |
| Posted by: anon1 2010-09-24 19:09 |