Mortars, Gunfire Kill 24, Wound 60 in Somalia's
Capital
The Associated Press, October 23, 2009
MOGADISHU, Somalia —
Mortars fired by Islamic militants slammed into Somalia's
airport as the president was boarding a plane Thursday, sparking
battles that killed at least 24 people when return fire hit
residential areas and a market, officials said.
A militant leader vowed to avenge the civilian deaths and threatened
retaliatory attacks in two African countries that supply troops to
the African Union peacekeeping mission stationed in Mogadishu.
The president was unhurt and his plane took off safely, police said,
but the deaths of civilians is fueling a growing anger toward
African Union peacekeeping forces that are stationed in Mogadishu to
help protect the U.N.-backed government.
Somalia's capital sees near-daily bloodshed as a powerful insurgent
group with links to al-Qaida tries to overthrow the fragile
government and push out some 5,000 AU peacekeepers. Both sides have
been accused of indiscriminate shelling.
At least 20 bodies, most of them civilians, lay in the streets after
Thursday's fighting, said Ali Muse, the head of Mogadishu's
ambulance service. Four people later died at the hospital. Muse said
about 60 people were wounded as mortar rounds slammed into
residential areas.
"Soldiers from Uganda and Burundi are our enemy. They often massacre
our people. We will not let them go unpunished, but will target them
in Kampala and Bujumbura," the capitals of the two countries, said
Sheikh Ali Mohamed Hussein, a leader of al-Shabab, the militant
group linked to al-Qaida that controls much of southern Somalia.
The shelling started soon after insurgents fired toward President
Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed's plane, said police spokesman Abdullahi
Hassan Barise.
Thursday's violence — deadlier than many recent clashes in this
once-beautiful seaside city — follow a pattern that witnesses say is
becoming all too common. First, insurgents fire at government or AU
targets. Then those forces respond by shelling insurgent bases, most
of which lie in residential areas. The result is that most of those
killed in Somalia's war are civilians.
The same situation exists in Afghanistan, where U.S. and NATO forces
are battling Taliban militants. The militants fire on international
troops from residential areas in hopes of drawing return fire that
kills civilians — a propaganda victory for the militants. The U.S.
commander in Afghanistan has sought to reduce such return fire,
which turns Afghans against U.S. and NATO forces.
But in Somalia, the AU denies firing into residential areas. AU
peacekeeping force spokesman Barigye Bahoku said insurgents are
actually shelling the residential areas they control to make it
appear the AU is responsible. But many Somalis doubt such
assertions. Others disagree. "What cannot be denied is that most of
the fire comes from the bases of the African Union, said Ahmed
Abdulahi, a businessman in Mogadishu. "People have eyes and ears,
they know what is going on."
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