Several Ethiopian Troops Feared Dead After a Fierce Battle in South Somalia

Three battle wagons belonging to the Ethiopian army were burned in a fierce gun battle that rocked the villages of Yak-Bareweyne and Balad-Dogle, some where 130 kilometers south-west of Mogadishu, on Sunday, residents told APA.

The fierce battle, which lasted for at least one hour began as Ethiopian soldiers were passing on the road by foot were attacked by machine gun fire and rocket propelled grenades thrown by Islamist insurgents who were believed to have been hiding in the alleys in the area.

“The fighting broke out instantly with mortar shells as the Ethiopian troops were walking on the two sides of the road,” Norto Ibrahim, a resident in the area told APA by telephone. He added that three battle wagons were burned in the fighting and the soldiers also began to defend themselves but the insurgents were so well armed which he said caused many casualties.

“I saw two trucks full of wounded Ethiopian soldiers, some of them were screaming. The trucks were full of blood and some of the soldiers were covered with blood,” said Halimoy Aden, a woman tea seller woman in Baidoa.

Towns in southern and central Somalia have been hardest-hit by insurgent attacks, including roadside bombings, assassinations and guerrilla attacks, targeting government forces and their Ethiopian backers.

Somalia had been plunged into anarchy after the overthrow of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, when warlords used their clan-based militias to fight each other for power, leading to constant inter-clan war which left thousands killed and millions displaced.

Source African Press Agency

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