Fighting leaves hundreds dead in Mogadishu
Pastor Dale Morgan
Fighting leaves hundreds dead in Mogadishu*
By Gethin Chamberlain, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 11:26pm BST 31/03/2007
Artillery and mortar bombs rained down on Mogadishu yesterday as the
Somali capital experienced its worst fighting in 15 years, writes Gethin
Chamberlain.
The conflict was so severe that bodies were not being picked up or even
counted and residents said hundreds were believed dead across the city
of one million people.
It was the third day of clashes between the Ethiopian army and
insurgents linked to the Council of Islamic Courts, which was driven
from power in December by Somali and Ethiopian soldiers, with the help
of US special forces.
"We don't know where to go. We are trapped in our houses and dead bodies
are lying in the street," said Ibrahim Duale, who lives in the southern
district of Ali Kamin.
"There is no chance of taking the wounded and dead because of the heavy
artillery and anti-aircraft weapons. It is still continuing and we
cannot tell the number of dead. I have seen at least seven bodies."
Buildings have also sustained heavy damage. "The whole area is
demolished, totally demolished," said another resident, Ali Hasan. "You
can see smoke coming out of everywhere and people are confused. They
don't have anywhere to run."
The International Committee of the Red Cross described the fighting as
the worst in more than 15 years.
On Friday, insurgents shot an Ethiopian helicopter gunship out of the
sky and mortar bombs slammed into a hospital, leaving corpses piled in
the streets and hundreds of civilians wounded.
Shooting down the helicopter and dragging dead soldiers through the
streets carried echoes of the failed UN-backed US peace operation in the
early 1990s.
In 1993 two US Black Hawk helicopters were shot down followed by a
firefight in which some 300 Somalis were killed in 12 hours.
The US withdrew from Somalia in 1994, followed a year later by UN
peacekeepers. The Islamic militants who now dominate the insurgency
stockpiled thousands of tons of weapons and ammunition during the six
months they controlled the city.
They have long rejected the establishment of any secular authority. A
national government was set up in 2004, culminating in the removal of
the Council of Islamic Courts last year. But insurgents linked to the
group have staged attacks nearly every day since then.