From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Tue Oct 14 2008 - 09:42:07 EDT
100 Somali soldiers surrender to UIC
Tue, 14 Oct 2008 07:48:51 GMT
Somali soldiers
Some 100 Somali soldiers in the capital Mogadishu have surrendered their weapons to the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) fighters.
The soldiers escaped from a military check post near an Ethiopian base in southern Mogadishu and handed over their weapons to the UIC after they came under a heavy attack by the insurgents, Press TV correspondent reported Tuesday. The soldiers were stationed in the area to defend Ethiopian troops in the nearby base.
"Thank God, Somali soldiers understood that if they had died defending Ethiopian troops, they would have died in vain," a UIC combatant said.
The incident comes just hours after 10 Somali soldiers and military officers in Mogadishu surrendered their weapons to the al-Shabaab group, an offshoot of the UIC.
Somalia has been without an effective central government since the Horn of Africa nation dictator Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. In 2006, US-backed Ethiopian troops invaded the country in an attempt to back Somalia's Transitional Federal Government (TFG).
Somali clashes leave scores killed
Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:59:58 GMT
More than 40 Ethiopian soldiers are killed after their vehicle hit a landmine near Bardale, a town 350 km from the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
The military convoy was heading towards Mogadishu when it was attacked by the military wing of the Union of the Islamic Courts (UIC), al-Shabaab, Press TV correspondent reported on Monday.
In another incident, 10 Ethiopian troops as well as many more civilians were killed after clashes erupted near the Ethiopian Base of Pasta in Heliwaa District in North Mogadishu, the report said.
Hundreds of people have fled their homes as mortars are fired and heavy fighting goes on in the region.
The UN- backed African Union Mission to Somalia, known as AMISOM was deployed in March 2007 to replace Ethiopian troops who invaded Somalia in 2006 in an attempt to back the country's Transitional Federal Government. But they failed to withdraw and have been blamed for the deaths of thousands of civilian and countless human rights violations in the Horn of Africa nation.
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