* Seven civilians, two militants killed in fighting
* Rebels resorting to guerrilla tactics
* Militants still hold large swathes of Somalia
By Abdi Sheikh and Feisal Omar
MOGADISHU, May 8 (Reuters) – Islamist rebels armed with
mortars and machine guns attacked African Union forces in
Somalia’s capital Mogadishu overnight, sparking a battle that
killed at least nine people, officials and residents said on
Tuesday.
The al Shabaab militants, who are allied to al Qaeda, were
forced out of most of the city last year but have kept up
sporadic bomb and suicide attacks.
“It was heavy fighting last night … Two al Shabaab dead
bodies are lying here,” said Captain Ndayiragije Come, a
spokesman from the Burundi contingent of the AU’s AMISOM
peacekeeping mission in Somalia.
“From our side two were injured. They were also shelling our
position – they missed their target,” he added.
Witnesses said shelling from the fighting hit two houses,
killing at least seven civilians, four of them from one family.
“A big shell landed on a house made of iron sheets. The
father, mother and their two sons died, only two children
survived with injuries,” resident Abdi Gaas told Reuters.
“Another shell landed on a nearby house. A mother and her
son died. The fragments of the shell killed a boy in another
house, we are now burying 7 people,” he added.
A Reuters reporter saw the dead bodies of seven civilians.
No one was immediately available to comment from al Shabaab.
The rebel group has waged a bloody five-year campaign to
topple Somalia’s Western-backed government and impose its harsh
interpretation of Islamic law (sharia).
The rebels continue to hold swathes of central and southern
Somalia but are being squeezed out of some areas by Kenyan and
Ethiopian troops, which have launched incursions inside Somalia
in support of the beleaguered government.
Somalia has been mired in chaos since warlords toppled
dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.
The overnight fighting took place in Mogadishu’s northern
Daynile district, the rebels’ last position after they withdrew
from the capital last year, under pressure from AMISOM and
Somali government troops.
Daynile has been the scene of some of the heaviest fighting
in Mogadishu. In October, the AU said it had lost 10 Burundian
peacekeepers in fighting there, but Reuters witnesses said they
saw a significantly higher number of bodies.
The African troops are keen to keep their hold on the
district to help them launch an offensive against the nearby
rebel strongholds of Elasha, Lafole and Afgoye.
(Writing by James Macharia; Editing by Andrew Heavens)
