Ethiopian army, clan elders agree to stop fighting in Somali capital

March 23, 2007 (MOGADISHU) — A truce Ethiopian military officials and elders of the dominant clan in Somalia’s capital agreed to on Friday was holding, except for skirmishes that left at least one dead. The truce follows two days of fighting during which dozens of people, mainly civilians, were killed.

The truce was scheduled to take effect at 12 p.m. (0900GMT) Friday but sporadic gunfire could be heard around the former Defense Ministry building in southern Mogadishu, which has been one of the front lines in the two days of fighting.

The rest of the capital remained calm Friday.

One civilian died early Friday, possibly from a stray bullet from the gunfire that began in the morning, said Mohamed Barre Olad. Olad saw the body as he walked to his home, which is near the former Defense Ministry headquarters. He said he saw also a wounded man being taken to a hospital in a wheelchair.

An elder, Mohammed Ibrahim Aden, told The Associated Press that 25 Hawiye clan elders met with “several Ethiopian (military) officials” late Thursday and agreed to stop hostilities and begin talks.

“We have asked the Ethiopian officials to pull their troops back from front line areas and force government troops to do the same,” Aden said. “We have also promised on our part to pull our fighters back from the battle fronts.”

Somali intelligence officials ordered Wednesday that the satellite television station Al-Jazeera close its Mogadishu office but they did not give any reason for the order, said Abshir Mohamed, the channel’s head of administration in Mogadishu. Mohamed said that the letter was signed by the city’s intelligence chief Ahmed Hassan Ali.

Information Minister Madobe Nunow Mohamed said he has not seen the letter. “But I will tell you that Al-Jazeera has conveyed the wrong messages to the world,” he told The Associated Press. “We will shut down additional radio stations and channels if they distort facts.”

Hundreds of residents had fled their homes Thursday during a second day of fighting between Islamic insurgents and Somali and Ethiopian troops in which at least four people were killed and six wounded. The fighting seemed to be less fierce than the previous day’s battles, during which at least 21 people were killed and more than 120 people wounded.

“This is a tragic situation,” U.N. Humanitarian Coordinator for Somalia Eric Laroche said. “Tens of thousands of people are fleeing Mogadishu, and civilian casualties are mounting daily.”

Government officials had vowed Thursday to continue fighting the insurgents in Mogadishu who they said are led by the newly chosen head of Somalia’s al-Qaida cell, Aden Hashi Ayro. The suspected al-Qaida leader is one of the people the U.S. targeted in a January airstrike in Somalia.

Ayro is a top leader of the ousted Islamic courts and the government had reports he was in Mogadishu, said Deputy Defense Minister Salad Ali Jelle. The Council of Islamic Courts that Ayro served as military commander was driven from the capital in December after six months in power. But the group has promised to launch an Iraq-style guerrilla war, and mortar attacks pound the capital nearly everyday.

Counterterrorism experts believe Ayro, who is in his mid-30s, received al-Qaida training in Afghanistan. U.N. officials have linked him to the killings of 16 people. Counterterrorism officials also believe he was involved in a plot, never carried out, to bring down an Ethiopian airliner.

Government officials have said the government’s offensive was focused on parts of the capital controlled by the Habr Gedir clan, a branch of the larger Hawiye clan. The Habr Gedir clan is a major supporter of the more radical elements of the Islamic courts and remains opposed to the government.

Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991. The current administration has failed to assert control throughout the country, and the African Union has deployed a small peacekeeping force to defend it.

But daily violence has continued in the capital, with civilians caught in the crossfire bearing the brunt of the violence.

(AP)