11 killed in Somalia fighting

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

11 killed in Somalia fighting

By SALAD DUHUL, Associated Press Writer
27 minutes ago

MOGADISHU, Somalia - Street battles in the Somali capital overnight
left at least 11 people dead and dozens others injured, witnesses
and health officials said Wednesday.

The fighting late Tuesday in northern and southern neighborhoods
of Mogadishu between Ethiopian troops backing Somalia's fragile
government and insurgents could be heard miles away. Some tank
shells that Ethiopian troops fired in southern Mogadishu landed in
the western part of the capital.

It is unclear what started the overnight fighting that lasted about
four hours. Early Wednesday, Mogadishu was calm, with hospitals
reporting a slow but steady flow of injured.

-snip-

In the overnight fighting, Ethiopian troops fired dozens of tank
shells into insurgent positions in Tawfiq, from the hilltop
presidential palace, said an elder of the capital's dominant clan.
Some of the shells hit areas in northern and western Mogadishu,
said Hussein Farah Siyad, a Hawiye elder. Siyad compiles a
casualty and damage report for the clan whenever there is
fighting.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070418/ap_on_re_af/somalia

[Eugene]

1. (Thursday) Somalia Fighting Kills at Least 12

Source: Associated Press

Somalia Fighting Kills at Least 12

Thursday April 19, 2007 6:16 PM

AP Photo NAI102, NAI101, NBI002

By SALAD DUHUL

Associated Press Writer

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Fighting between Ethiopian troops and
insurgents left at least 12 people dead in Somalia's capital
Thursday, while a suicide car bomb exploded at an Ethiopian army
base, officials and witnesses said.

Fighting in Mogadishu has killed hundreds of people since Ethiopian
forces helped Somalia's fragile interim government oust an Islamic
militia in December. Remnants of the Islamic group have vowed to
wage an Iraq-style insurgency.

-snip-

Deputy Defense Minister Salad Ali Jelle blamed the suicide car bombing
on al-Qaida elements and said no troops had been killed or wounded.
Hundreds of Ethiopian soldiers live at the base, which is surrounded by
a low wall and has an ungated entrance.

Several witnesses reported mortar shells striking targets in the city.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6571208,00.html

[maddezmom]

2. Rockets hit Mogadishu market, 12 dead in chaos(Thursday)

Rockets hit Mogadishu market, 12 dead in chaos
MOGADISHU, April 19 (Reuters) - Rockets slammed into a Mogadishu market on Thursday amid battles between troops and Somali insurgents that killed at least 12 civilians but probably many more, residents said. Heavy shelling resounded around the coastal capital as Somali government troops and their Ethiopian allies targeted insurgent strongholds in residential areas.

Minibuses raced scores of wounded to packed hospitals where doctors lost count of the operations they were performing.

"Six consecutive missiles hit. ... There are many wounded," said Hassan Ibrahim, who drove a minivan full of injured people to Madina Hospital from the central Al Barakah district.

Screams resounded through the hospitals' corridors. A Reuters witness saw a tiny baby boy, 40 days old, being operated on for a bad stomach wound. The boy survived.

more:http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L19298616.htm

[maddezmom]

3. Latest Mogadishu violence kills 21 people

MOGADISHU, April 20 (Reuters) - Sporadic shelling and gunfire went on through the night in Mogadishu and residents on Friday said latest fighting and a suicide attack at an Ethiopian base had killed at least 21 people and wounded another 101.

Residents say the recent fighting, which had rockets slamming into a crowded market on Thursday, was as bad as a ferocious four-day war that killed 1,000 people at the end of March and displaced about a fifth of the city's population.

"We have admitted 71 and 41 of them are seriously injured and the other 30 had minor injuries," a doctor at the Madina Hospital told Reuters.

more:http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L20705753.htm

[Eugene]

4. Latest Mogadishu battles kill 113 civilians - group

Source: Reuters

Latest Mogadishu battles kill 113 civilians - group
20 Apr 2007 17:22:42 GMT
Source: Reuters

MOGADISHU, April 20 (Reuters) - Three days of battles in Mogadishu
pitting Ethiopian and Somali troops against insurgents have killed
113 civilians and wounded another 222, a local human rights group
said on Friday.

"We call on both sides to cease the war immediately without any
pre-condition," Sudan Ali Ahmed, chairman of the Elman Peace and
Human Rights Organisation which tracks the casualties, told Reuters
in Mogadishu.


Link: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L20375697.htm

---

Source: Agence France-Presse

Fighting rocks Mogadishu amid looming humanitarian disaster

by Mustafa Haji Abdinur
17 minutes ago

MOGADISHU (AFP) - Ethiopian forces battled Islamist insurgents in the
Somalia capital on Friday as the United Nations warned of a humanitarian
catastrophe with corpses left rotting in the streets.

Residents said the non-stop shelling that erupted at mid-day (0900 GMT)
was the longest in three days of fighting that broke out on Tuesday, but
abated briefly on Wednesday.

At least six civilians were killed and several wounded in the battles
bringing this week's death toll to 43.

-snip-

The UN refugee agency said more than 321,000 people have fled Mogadishu
since February 1 when the fighting first began.

"Unless something is done, the humanitarian crisis is going to turn into
a catastrophe very soon," Eric Laroche, the UN's humanitarian coordinator
in Somalia, told journalists Thursday.

-snip-

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20070420/wl_africa_afp/somaliaunrest_10

[maddezmom]

5. More die, flee as violence rocks Mogadishu (sat)

More die, flee as violence rocks Mogadishu
21 Apr 2007 07:28:49 GMT
Source: Reuters
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Background
Somalia troubles
More MOGADISHU, April 21 (Reuters) - Shells rocked Mogadishu through the night and into Saturday morning, killing more civilians and sending hundreds more fleeing the Somali capital in the biggest mass exodus since the 1991 fall of a dictator.

"There are a lot of deaths. I am carrying the bodies of two family members into my car now," one distraught resident, who asked not to give his name, told Reuters.

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L21704746.htm

[Eugene]

6. Mogadishu war rages, at least 73 die

Source: Reuters

Mogadishu war rages, at least 73 die
21 Apr 2007 12:28:02 GMT
Source: Reuters


By Sahal Abdulle

MOGADISHU, April 21 (Reuters) - 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 Reuters confirmed the
latest deaths on Saturday -- adding to an estimated 131 others
from the previous three days' violence.

The week's final death-toll is expected to soar and may come close
to the estimated 1,000 casualties from a similar four-day flare-up
at the end of March. Most of the victims are civilians.

Saturday's biggest toll came in the busy Al Barakah residential
and market area, where 20 people died when mortars hit the area,
witnesses said. Bodies lay strewn in the street, some headless and
others mutilated beyond recognition.

-snip-

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L21503270.htm