Somalian, Ethiopian troops fight Islamists for second day

March 22, 2007 (MOGADISHU) — Somalian and Ethiopian troops battled Islamist insurgents for a second day in the capital Thursday, witnesses said. There were no immediate reports of causalities.

Wednesday, Islamist insurgents dragged soldiers’ corpses through the streets of Mogadishu during fighting that killed at least 16 people and wounded dozens.

Insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and heavy machine-guns and government troops responded with artillery and machine-gun fire in the early morning battles Thursday in northern and southern parts of Mogadishu, the witnesses said.

Hundreds of government troops were deployed to reinforce troops who fought insurgents Wednesday, said Fathi Mohamed Aden, a clan elder who saw the fighting take place in his northern Mogadishu neighborhood.

Both sides then engaged in a fierce gunbattle, he said.

In a southern Mogadishu neighborhood, gunmen attacked government and Ethiopian troops based at the former defense ministry building, said a witness.

The fighting follows Wednesday’s battles during which insurgents dragged the corpses of six soldiers -four Somalis and two of their Ethiopian allies – through the streets of Mogadishu and set the bodies on fire, drawing crowds who threw rocks and kicked the smoldering remains.

Wednesday marked some of the heaviest fighting in Mogadishu since a radical militia known as the Council of Islamic Courts 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 every day.

The leader of the Council of Islamic Courts, Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, told the British Broadcasting Corp.’s Somali service that the insurgents and residents of Mogadishu are justified in fighting the Somali government troops and their Ethiopian allies, but denied he was involved in it.

Speaking in a rare interview late Wednesday since his group’s ouster, Aweys said he and other Islamist leaders are safe and living in Somalia, though he declined to disclose his location. He said that he considers African Union peacekeepers already in the country enemies.

“We were invaded and no one respected us while we were in power and were ready to negotiate. Even the United Nations, which we expected was an impartial organization, helped the invasion against us. So we see the African troops as an enemy and not a friend,” Aweys said, speaking on a satellite phone.

Interior Minister Mohamed Mohamud Guled said that the government is determined to restore law and order in Mogadishu within a week despite any resistance it meets.

“The government will defeat the elements, who are the enemy of peace for Somalis and we will conclude that mission within a week,” Guled told The Associated Press.

A government official said Wednesday’s offensive was focused on parts of the capital controlled by the Habr Gedir clan, which was 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 taking the brunt of the violence.

(AP)