From: Biniam Tekle (biniamt@dehai.org)
Date: Mon May 11 2009 - 15:18:43 EDT
Monday, 11 May 2009 Somalia's Al Shabab militants gain ground
*By Jonathan Adams,
for CSMonitor*
(AXcess News) - Scores have been killed over the past few days in fresh
fighting between Al Shabab Islamist insurgents and pro-government militia in
Somalia's war-torn capital, Mogadishu.
The two sides traded mortar and machine gun fire for four days, though
reports said calm had returned Monday. Some reports indicated that Al Shabab
had tightened its grip over Mogadishu, a setback for the new government led
by moderate Islamist Sheikh Sharif Ahmed. Reports also suggested that
foreigners were fighting alongside Al Shabab.
Reuters spoke to an Al Shabab official who claimed his group had made gains
in northern Mogadishu.
"We killed an uncountable number of government fighters and moderate
Islamists. Their dead bodies lie in the streets," Sheikh Mohamed Ibrahim
Bilal, a senior Al-Shabab official, told Reuters.
"Now north Mogadishu is under our control. We swept them from five key
positions including Mogadishu football stadium."
The agency also quoted one elder who said that foreigners - "long-bearded
Arabs" - were taking part in the fighting.
The US has accused Al Shabab of having links with Al Qaeda, and is concerned
that Somalia is increasingly a haven for terrorists, including those
involved in the 1998 bombings of two American embassies in Africa.
The Somali government repeated those charges, according to Garowe Online.
Somali Security Minister Omar Hashi told reporters that foreigners were
fighting alongside Al Shabaab guerrillas in Mogadishu.
"The government will fight against any group that opposes peace....
Foreigners are fighting for Al Shabab," the Security Minister alleged.
He stated that the Council of Ministers held an emergency meeting on Sunday
and voted to "declare war" against anti-government factions in Mogadishu.
Security Minister Hashi said the Somali interim government led by Islamist
moderate Sheikh Sharif Ahmed as president "has not closed the book on
reconciliation," but noted that the government "will fight against
anti-peace groups with ties to Al Qaeda."
An Al Shabab official told Garowe Online that "Muslims from across the world
are fighting on our side."
Three Somali reporters were also wounded during the fighting, when a shell
hit nearby as they were interviewing an Al Shabab member, the media outlet
reported.
The BBC reported that at least 14 people were killed in a mortar attack on a
mosque. At least 50 people have died in gun battles since Thursday, the
agency reported, and residents have fled their homes and the city.
The Cape Times reported civilians had been caught in the crossfire.
At least 15 corpses were seen in the streets of Mogadishu yesterday after
fighting started late on Saturday and continued into yesterday afternoon.
Hospital officials and witnesses in other parts of the city said another
five people were killed.
Abdinasir Ali, a resident, said he recognized six victims as members of the
same family, who had died when a mortar shell hit their house.
Residents were streaming out of the capital, seeking safety.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) said that traffic resumed and businesses reopened
Monday. It said the militants had rejected overtures and compromises from
the moderate Islamist government.
Hardliners have rejected talks with Ahmed's government, even after it
endorsed plans to introduce Islamic law, a key demand of the opposition
militants.
"We express concern over the deteriorating situation and we regret the
civilian lives lost," said Sheikh Bashir Ahmed Salad, chairman of a
religious panel trying to mediate peace between the two sides.
"We had been contacting both sides in the past week to avoid bloodshed, but
they ignored our calls and engaged in fighting that led to civilian
casualties," he told AFP.
United Press International cited a CNN report that quoted an unnamed Somali
journalist describing the chaos in the city. The journalist said fears were
running high that Al Shabab would emerge with the upper hand.
"Government soldiers have been forced out of two strategic positions - one
is the football stadium and it has fallen into hands of Al-Shabab," the
journalist said. "And there is a wide anxiety among the city residents that
the radical group may take full control of the city."
Somalia has been wracked with civil war and lawlessness since 1991, when
former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was removed from office. Warlords and
Islamist groups have since carved up the country.
In 2006, US-backed Ethiopian troops invaded to try to restore order and
bolster the flailing government. Those troops engaged in widespread clashes
with Islamist groups and finally withdrew in January.
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