Saturday 9 April 2011

Seven Killed in Rebel Attack on Government Bases in Somalia

April 09, 2011, 7:01 AM EDT

By Hamsa Omar
April 9 (Bloomberg) -- At least seven people were killed in clashes between Islamic rebels and pro-government forces in southwest Somalia, local residents and officials from opposing sides said.
Fighting erupted late yesterday in Luuq, 90 kilometers (56 miles) from the border with Kenya, after the Al-shabaab movement, which the U.S. accuses of having links to al-Qaeda, attacked government bases and lasted until this morning.
“They have been exchanging heavy weapons including mortar shells and cannons,” Abdurahman Bare Mo’laim, a businessman in Luuq, said by telephone today. “Seven corpses have reportedly been seen around the battle field zone this morning, mostly from the warring sides.”
Somalia has been without a functioning central administration since 1991, when ruler Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted. The Horn of Africa country is facing its worst humanitarian crisis since the early 1990s because of the conflict and drought, according to Mohamed Ali Nur, Somalia’s ambassador to Kenya.
An army spokesman for Al-Shabaab said its forces had now withdrawn from Luuq after briefly taking control. “We successfully took over their bases for a while,” Sheikh Abdi Aziz Abu Musab told reporters by phone. “We inflicted heavy losses on them.”
Local residents and Ahlu Suna Wal Jama, a pro-government militia, rejected this version of events.
“Al-shabaab attempted to capture Luuq district last night but they have failed,” Sheikh Mohamed Hussein, a local spokesman for Ahlu Suna Wal Jama, said by phone.
Separately, fighting in Mogadishu, the capital city, between Al-shabaab and government forces supported by an African Union peacekeeping mission, known as Amisom, left three civilians dead and five others injured.
Ali Muse Sheikh, in charge of Mogadishu’s ambulance service, confirmed the civilian casualties in the Bondhere district in the northern part of Mogadishu.
--Editors: Stephen Cunningham, Andrew Reierson.
To contact the reporter on this story: Hamsa Omar in Mogadishu via Nairobi at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Antony Sguazzin in Johannesburg at asguazzin@bloomberg.net.

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