Somali and AU forces view a destroyed vehicle which was loaded with explosives to target an African Union, AU, peacekeepers base in the capital, Mogadishu, Somalia
At least 13 people have been killed and 30 others injured in clashes between government troops and opposition fighters in the Somali capital Mogadishu.Witnesses said that fighting broke out on Tuesday after an armed group attacked police and African Union peacekeepers in the capital's southern Taleh district.
The fighting came a day after Sharif Ahmed, Somalia's newly elected president, returned to the country from Djibouti.Witnesses said that heavy machine guns and artillery were used in Tuesday's fighting and that the fighters shelled the presidential palace.
Several residents said that two civilians had been hit by stray bullets near the scene of clashes and three others were killed when a mortar shell struck a house.
A medical official said that more than 20 wounded people had been transferred to the city's Medina hospital.The clashes follow Sunday's suicide bomb attack on an AU base in the Somali capital, which left 11 Burundi soldiers dead.
The bombilng, which was claimed by the al-Shabab armed group, was the deadliest so far against the African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom).
Somalia’s militant al-Shabab group has promised to launch more attack
s against African Union peacekeeping troops a day after 11 soldiers from Burundi were killed in blasts claimed by the group.On an Internet website, al-Shabab posted pictures of the two young men it says were responsible for Sunday’s deadly attack on the Mogadishu compound housing peacekeepers from Burundi.
Somalia has been plagued by conflict for the past 18 years and Islamist insurgents have been fighting the government for over two years. More than 16,000 civilians have been killed since the start of 2007 and 1 million uprooted from their homes.
Courtesy : Al Jazeera...
Post a Comment