From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Tue Jul 20 2010 - 14:20:36 EDT
Mogadishu fighting kills 52 civilians in a week-group
Tue Jul 20, 2010 2:07pm GMT
By Abdi Sheikh
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Fighting between al Shabaab rebels and government
forces in the north of Somalia's capital has killed at least 52 civilians
and wounded scores over the past week, a local rights group said on Tuesday.
The violence in Mogadishu has intensified since al Shabaab suicide bombers
killed 73 people watching the World Cup final in Uganda's capital and the
festering conflict is likely to be high on the agenda at an African Union
summit in Kampala this week.
Troops from Uganda and Burundi make up the roughly 6,300 strong African
Union force protecting key sites in Mogadishu and there have been calls for
their mandate to be widened so they can go on the offensive against the al
Qaeda-linked insurgents.
"It is ceaseless fighting and shelling between government forces and al
Shabaab in the north of Mogadishu," Ali Yasin Gedi, vice chairman of the
Somalia-based Elman rights group told Reuters on Tuesday.
"At least 52 people died and 129 others were injured in this week's
fighting."
Al Shabaab and another Islamist militia have been fighting the
Western-backed Somali government since the start of 2007. They control much
of the capital but have failed so far to drive President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed
from office.
The African Union force, known as AMISOM, has stepped in at key moments to
protect the president's palace and Uganda said last week it was ready to
send another 2,000 troops to help take the fight to the rebels.
REBELS PUSHED BACK
Mogadishu residents said AU tanks and government troops made some advances
on Tuesday, retaking areas lost to al Shabaab a day earlier, although
civilians once again bore the brunt of shelling by both sides.
"Today we helped the government push the rebels back. It is within our
mandate to protect and support the transitional federal institutions,"
AMISOM spokesman Barigye Ba-Hoku told Reuters on Tuesday.
On Sunday, a shell hit a building next to Koranic school between the
presidential palace and the city's port, wounding 14 children studying
there, witnesses said.
"The shrapnel penetrated into the school which was made of iron sheets,"
said Aden Bashir. "My sons sustained injuries in the head and hand."
At least 21,000 civilians have been killed since the start of the
insurgency. Aid agencies and rights groups have become increasingly
concerned about indiscriminate shelling and some have accused combatants on
all sides of war crimes.
In April, the United Nations condemned the shelling of heavily populated
areas by Somali forces, AU troops and the rebels -- who are fighting to
impose their own harsh version of sharia law in the Horn of Africa nation.
Al Shabaab said the suicide attacks in Uganda on July 11 were to avenge the
killing of civilians by African Union forces.
C Thomson Reuters 2010 All rights reserved
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