At least eight civilians have been killed during a fresh exchange of mortar fire between Somali government forces and Islamist insurgents in the restive capital Mogadishu on Sunday evening.
The civilian casualties occurred when militants fired mortar rounds toward the presidential palace and in reaction the government forces fired cannons towards villages in the Huruwaa district, a militant stronghold in the north-eastern part of the capital Mogadishu causing the deaths of at least eight civilians in different areas.
“I have seen the deaths of five people including a mother and her two children and more wounded others were being collected by ambulances” Asad Ahmed, a resident in the Ali Turcaaye village of Huruwaa district told APA by telephone.
Another eyewitness, Anwar Hassan Nur told APA during a telephone conversation that he saw three people from the same family killed by a stray mortar at their home.
Ali Muse Sheikh, the chief of the Lifeline Africa Nation Link Telecom told reporters that his medical staff collected 20 wounded civilians from three villages in the militant-controlled Huruwaa district of Mogadishu.
Somalia’s lawless capital sees nearly daily armed confrontations between government forces and AU peacekeepers on one side and extremist groups on the other, and as a result more than 20,000 people, mainly civilians have been killed in the capital since January 2007.
Source African Press Agency
Related articles by Zemanta
- Shelling Kills At Least 11 Civilians in Somali Capital (netnewspublisher.com)
- Uneasy Calm Returns to Somali Capital After a Day of Bloody Clashes (netnewspublisher.com)
- Somali Government Intercepts Terrorist Funding At Mogadishu Airport (netnewspublisher.com)
