Bomb wounds 12 soldiers near Somali parliament
MOGADISHU, Dec 15 (Reuters) -
A roadside bomb wounded at least 12 Somali soldiers in Baidoa and two
people were killed in violence in Mogadishu on Saturday.
The attacks in the capital and the south-central town hosting
Somalia's parliament came after two days of fighting in Mogadishu
between allied Somali-Ethiopian forces and Islamist insurgents.
"A remote-controlled roadside bomb targeted a military pick-up
truck," said police officer Aden Moalim in Baidoa. "At least 12 soldiers
guarding the road to parliament, including one Ethiopian, were hurt." In
the capital, two people died after grenades were hurled at government
troops patrolling Bakara Market, triggering a gun battle. A local
journalist who asked not to be named said he saw the insurgents execute
one blindfolded captive during the clash while the second victim was
killed by crossfire.
"I and a few other people witnessed the killing of a blindfolded man
who was shot dead by six young men armed with pistols," the journalist
said.
"Some people were saying the man was suspected of spying for
government forces."
A police spokesman said several weapons caches had been seized since
Friday during government operations in Bakara, which contains an
open-air weapons bazaar.
Four suspected insurgents were killed on Friday after being seen
firing mortars, he said, and several others were arrested. At least 25
people have been killed in the capital since Thursday when mortar bombs
damaged parts of Bakara and sustained fighting broke out in other parts
of the city. Many Somalis say the insurgents - remnants of a hardline
sharia courts groups chased out of the city a year ago - have become
increasingly confident in recent months while the interim government has
been hobbled by infighting. The government says the rebels are backed by
4,500 foreign jihadists from Afghanistan, Chechnya and the Middle East.
Fighting in Mogadishu has killed nearly 6,000 civilians this year and
uprooted some 720,000 more, a local rights group says. The United
Nations says the humanitarian crisis in Somalia is Africa's worst. |