From: Berhane Habtemariam (Berhane.Habtemariam@gmx.de)
Date: Mon Sep 21 2009 - 10:45:49 EDT
At least 17 killed in west Somalia fighting: elders
By Mustafa Haji Abdinur (AFP)
21/09/2009
MOGADISHU - Islamist insurgents battled government forces in western Somalia
and at least 17 people, mainly combatants, were killed, elders said Monday,
as both sides claimed victory.
The fighting broke out late Sunday when fighters from the Shebab, an Al
Qaeda-inspired group that controls much of southern Somalia, attacked
government forces in the town of Yet on the border with Ethiopia.
"We are getting that 17 people, mainly combatants, died in the fighting and
some vehicles were destroyed," Ali Moalim Kerow, an elder in the nearby town
of Rabdhure, told AFP.
A local aid worker speaking on condition of anonymity gave a similar death
toll but warned that it could rise.
The Shebab claimed victory in their battle with government forces but local
residents said Monday that it was unclear who controlled the town after the
previous night's fighting.
"We took control of the town after defeating the remnants of the apostate
government who were planning attacks against us," Sheikh Hassan Mohamed, a
Shebab commander for Hodur district, told AFP.
"Many of their dead are strewn in the streets of the town and our forces
pulled out this morning," he said.
The Shebab commander said insurgent forces attacked government troops that
had previously retreated from the city of Baidoa, further south, where the
transitional administration's parliament was based.
A government military official acknowledged the attack but claimed his
forces had defeated the Shebab.
"They attacked us in the evening but with no success. They retreated and we
killed more than ten of their fighters. Our forces are in full control of
the town," Shine Moalim Nurow said.
The Shebab group and Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys's more political movement
Hezb al-Islam launched on May 7 a broad military offensive aimed at toppling
Somali President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
One front has focused on further boxing Sharif into a tiny perimeter in
Mogadishu, where he owes his survival largely to the protection of African
Union peacekeepers.
The other front has pitted the insurgents against government forces and
their allies on the main arteries leading from the capital to the borders
with Kenya and Ethiopia.
Since Ethiopia put an end to its two-year intervention in Somalia in
January, the country's hardline Islamists have focused their rhetoric on the
African peacekeepers, whom they accuse of being the foreguard of a Christian
crusade.
At least 21 people, including 17 AU peacekeepers, were killed Thursday in
twin suicide car bomb attacks on their headquarters at Mogadishu airport,
the deadliest such attack since the AU force was deployed in March 2007.
Copyright C 2009 AFP.
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