Deaths mount as fighting rages in Mogadishu

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Somalia chaos- Video
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Bombs, shelling rock Somali capital

By SALAD DUHUL, Associated Press Writer 43 minutes ago

Car bombs exploded in Somalia's capital Tuesday and fighting raged for a seventh straight day, with Ethiopian and Somali government troops making a final push to wipe out an insurgency ahead of a peace conference.

Several large shipments of food for the tens of thousands of people who have fled Mogadishu have been turned back because there was no clearance from the Somali government, aid workers and diplomats said. The government has demanded to inspect all aid deliveries despite the worst humanitarian crisis in the country's recent history.

Islamic insurgents clashed with Ethiopian troops backing Somali government forces, using mortars and rocket-propelled grenades against tanks and artillery positions in the north of the battle-scarred coastal city.

A car bomb exploded outside the Ambassador Hotel, which is used by government lawmakers, said Somali presidential spokesman Hussein Mohamoud Hussein. Seven people were killed, said eyewitness Abdu-Kadir Mohamud.

A suspected suicide car bombing injured three civilians outside an Ethiopian military base 18 miles from the capital, said resident Mayow Mohamed. Troops opened fire on the minibus as it sped toward the base, he said.

The last seven days of clashes have killed 358 people, including at least 29 civilians and 36 insurgents who died Tuesday, according to Somalia's Elman Human Rights Organization.

Bodies lay rotting on the streets for days — too dangerous to retrieve.

Most of the fighting was around front line positions and weary Mogadishu residents said it was not as fierce as in previous days.

"The sides have got tired so they need breathing space to replace their men and repair their damaged equipment," said Abdi Ahemd Shoma.

The latest fighting flared seven days ago after Ethiopian and Somali government troops made a final push to wipe out the insurgency, Western diplomatic and Somali government sources told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.

Facing international pressure over the mounting death toll, the government and its Ethiopian appeared determined to bring order before a national reconciliation conference in June. Clan and warlord militia have also joined the fight against the Ethiopians and government forces.

A bid earlier this month to wipe out the insurgency left more than 1,000 people dead, many of them civilians.

More than 320,000 Somalis have fled the capital since February, streaming to squalid camps with little to eat and no shelter. Tens of thousands of others remain trapped by the fighting.

In a letter obtained by the AP on Tuesday, Somali Interior Minister Mohamed Mohamud Guled told the World Food Program that the government must inspect any goods being sent to Somalia.

Soldiers at a military checkpoint outside Mogadishu turned back a World Food Program shipment that would have benefited 32,000 people because the government had not given clearance, Graham Farmer, the U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, said in an April 12 letter to Gedi.

In a letter to President Abdullahi Yusuf last week, U.S. Ambassador Michael Ranneberger called on the government to stop "halting distribution of food aid for unspecified inspections."

He also said at least one government-appointed regional governor "required payment for the transit of relief goods on top of payments already made to militia checkpoints. These practices are unacceptable and undermine the legitimacy of your government."

The letters were provided to the AP by an aid official who asked not to be named for fear of being fired.

Somalia's transitional government was formed in 2004 with U.N. help, but has struggled to extend its control over the country.

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Associated Press writers Elizabeth A. Kennedy and Mohamed Olad Hassan contributed to this report from Nairobi, Kenya.

74 slain at oil field in Ethiopia

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 16:45:35

At least 74 workers have been killed in an attack on a Chinese-run oil field in eastern Ethiopia, an official of the Chinese company said Tuesday.

"The attack happened this morning. Nine Chinese were killed, seven Chinese workers were kidnapped and 65 locals were killed," said Xu Shuang, the general manager of Zhongyuan Petroleum Exploration Bureau, based in Addis Ababa, told The Associated Press.

Somalia facing humanitarian crisis as hundreds of thousands flee capital

By Salad Duhul and Elizabeth A. Kennedy, Associated Press Writers

Published: 24 April 2007

There are no more hospital beds available in this bloodstained capital, and barely enough bandages to patch up the wounded. Even the bottles of medicine are running dry.

But still the patients keep pouring in - and they are the lucky ones, having survived another day of gunfire and mortar shells as Islamic insurgents battle troops allied to Somalia's fragile government.

"Even the shades of the trees are occupied at this point," Dahir Dhere, director of Medina Hospital, the largest health facility in Mogadishu, said yesterday. "We are overwhelmed."

Battles rocked Mogadishu for the sixth straight day Monday as Somalia heads toward one of the worst humanitarian crises in its history, with civilians getting slaughtered in the crossfire. A local human rights group put the death toll at 1,000 over just four days earlier this month, and more than 250 have been killed in the past six days.

More than 320,000 of Mogadishu's 2 million residents have fled since heavy fighting started in February.

Ahmed Mohamed, 32, was not one of them. A mortar shell hit him over the weekend, crushing his right leg.

"The doctors told me I would die unless they cut off my leg," Mohamed said, tears streaming down his face in the city's Keysaney Hospital, which was packed beyond capacity with nearly 200 people. "So I have to let them do it."

Somalia Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said Monday his interim government was winning the battle against the insurgents, but called for greater support from the international community.

"If we do not get international support the war may spread throughout the region and Africa," Gedi said. "These terrorists want to destabilize the whole region."

The government and its Ethiopian backers have been facing mounting pressure from the US, European Union and United Nations over the mounting civilian death toll and appear determined to bring order to the city before a planned national reconciliation conference in June.

But the fighting has decimated Mogadishu, already one of the most violent and gun-infested cities in the world. At least 18 civilians were killed Monday, said Sudan Ali Ahmed, the chairman of the Elman Human Rights Organization group. A 6-month-old baby was among those wounded, said a witness, Khadija Farah.

Somalia has been mired in chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned against each other. The western city of Baidoa, where the Somali Parliament is based, was dubbed "City of Death" in the 1990s during a searing drought and famine there. Mogadishu, once a stunning seaside capital, is now a looted shantytown teeming with guns, with no functioning government or institutions.

A national government was established in 2004, but has failed to assert any real control.

Last month, troops from neighboring Ethiopia used tanks and attack helicopters to crush a growing insurgency linked to the Council of Islamic Courts. The movement had controlled Mogadishu and much of the country's south for only six months in 2006, but those were the most peaceful months since 1991.

The group was driven from power in December by Somali and Ethiopian soldiers, accompanied by US special forces, who have accused the group of having ties to al-Qaida. The militants reject any secular government, and have sworn to fight until Somalia becomes an Islamic emirate.

Meanwhile, the capital and its surrounding towns have become scenes of ghastly despair. Women and children flee on foot with little more than their clothes and some cooking pots, then sleep by the side of the road. In Afgoye, about 30 kilometers (20 miles) from the capital, fights were breaking out over a spot of shade beneath a tree.

"Everyone wants to sit in the small area under the tree," said Asha Hassan Mohamed, a mother of seven who reached Afgoye last week but returned to Mogadishu because she couldn't find any food.

"It's so crowded because there is no shelter."

The United Nations said the fighting had sparked the worst humanitarian crisis in the war-ravaged country's recent history, with many of the city's residents trapped because roads out of Mogadishu were blocked.

Catherine Weibel, a spokeswoman for the U.N. refugee agency, said many of those who haven't fled the capital are simply too vulnerable to do so.

"All the people who are sick, in wheelchairs, disabled," she said, "they cannot leave."

Ethiopian helicopter gunships fire on Somali market

Helicopters fire on Somali market

Ethiopian helicopter gunships have fired at a market near an insurgent stronghold in the Somali capital.

The BBC's Mohammed Olad Hassan in Mogadishu says hundreds of insurgents armed with rocket launchers and machine guns are battling Ethiopian troops.

Ethiopian tanks are also deployed. Crowds dragged several dead bodies in uniform through the streets.

The security crackdown in the south of the city is being billed as a three-day operation to restore order.

Meanwhile, Ethiopia says two-thirds of its troops have withdrawn from Somalia.

Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi told parliament the rest of his troops, which are deployed in support of the interim government, would leave in consultation with the African Union.

Ethiopian troops helped install the government last December but have been gradually handing over responsibilities to the AU force that was deployed to Mogadishu this month to try and bring stability to the city.

Some 1,700 Ugandan troops are in Mogadishu as the advance party of a planned 8,000 strong AU force.

No-go zone

In a dawn operation, at least six people died in the fighting which broke a ceasefire declared a week ago and was brokered by elders form the Hawiye clan - the biggest in Mogadishu - but Ethiopia denied reaching any deal.

Ethiopian tanks, troops and helicopters are trying to take control of five key junctions.

This is the worst fighting Mogadishu has seen since the Islamists were ousted Zenaib Abubakar Mogadishu resident

The militia responded with heavy artillery fire.

The southern part of Mogadishu, where the fighting is going on, has become a no-go zone.

Dozens of injured civilians are stranded, as heavy fighting has grounded public transport and other business activity in the Somali capital.

"This is the worst fighting Mogadishu has seen since the Islamists were ousted. Explosions can be heard all over the city and many people are just holed up in their homes," resident Zenaib Abubakar told the BBC Somali Service.

Ms Abubakar said heavy shelling is taking place near the main stadium, where Ethiopian and government troops are battling with insurgents who are putting up heavy resistance.

"It's difficult to tell how many people have been injured or killed because fighting is taking place in several parts of the capital and communication today is not very good," said another resident, Ahmed Noor.

The interim government has blamed the escalating violence in the capital on remnants of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC).

Somalia enjoyed a six months lull in the insecurity that had dogged the country in the past 16 years, when the UIC took power last year.

But insecurity has returned to the city.

The UN estimates that 40,000 people have fled Mogadishu since February.

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