At least 13 dead in Somali fighting

24 Feb 2009 Source: ITN

At least 13 people have been killed and scores wounded during the heaviest fighting in the Somali capital Mogadishu for weeks.

 Al-Shabab fighters have been attacking police and African Union peacekeepers with both sides firing heavy machine guns and artillery, according to witnesses.

Meanwhile, insurgents fired volleys of mortar bombs at the hill-top Villa Somalia presidential palace.

Resident Abdirizak Mohamed said: "A mother and her baby died after a shell landed on their house. Their flesh was so mangled we did not know what to carry."

At least 11 other civilians were killed and workers at the city's main hospital said about 45 wounded had been admitted.

"More injured people are being brought to us as the fighting is still going on," Dr Dahir Dheere said.

During a two-year fighting against invading Ethiopian forces, more than 16,000 civilians have been killed and 1 million have been forced from their homes. More than a third of the population depend on aid, and large parts of Mogadishu lie empty and destroyed.

The latest fighting broke out after hardline Islamist group al-Shabaab said they would mount more attacks on the AU troops after killing at least 11 Burundian soldiers on Sunday, which they consider as foreign occupation forces.

Somalia: 11 African Union Peacekeepers Killed

 All Africa, Garowe, 22 February 2009

The African Union says eleven peacekeepers from Burundi were killed in Somalia Sunday in an "unprecedented" attack, Radio Garowe reports.

Witnesses near the compound of Somalia's old National University in the capital Mogadishu said two huge explosions occurred midday today, sending plumes of smoke into the air and terrifying residents weary of war and violence.

The old university campus is a base for AU peacekeepers from Burundi.

"These attacks have reached today an unprecedented level, resulting in the killing of 11 Burundian soldiers, while 15 others have sustained serious injuries," read the AU statement, as published by the Reuters news agency.

Muktar Robow "Abu Mansur," the Al-Shabaab spokesman, claimed responsibility for the suicide bombings on Mogadishu radio stations.

"Two of our men were martyred...they inflicted heavy damage on soldiers at a church," Abu Mansur claimed, while identifying the suicide bombers as Ahmed Sheikhdon Sidow Wehliye and Mursal Abdinur Mohamed Ali.

Abu Mansur demanded that AU soldiers leave Somalia or continue to face more attacks.

He said Al-Shabaab welcomes all groups who want to find a solution to the Somali crisis, but denied having knowledge of a group of Somali Muslim scholars who recently issued a declaration calling on the AU force to leave Somalia within 120 days.

The scholars also called on Islamist rebels to stop the insurgency and allow AU peacekeepers time to withdraw.

Sunday's violence becomes the deadliest attack on AU soldiers since Ugandan soldiers deployed in Mogadishu in March 2007.