Rebel reinforcements rushed to Mogadishu Saturday to confront a government offensive after one of the bloodiest days of combat in the Somali capital in months.
"The fighting in Mogadishu will intensify the coming days," an opposition source said.
At least 45 people were killed and 200 wounded Friday in clashes between Islamist insurgents and pro-government forces.
Neighboring states and Western governments fear Somalia, which has been mired in civil war for 18 years, could become a haven for militants linked to al Qaeda unless the new government can defeat them.
Islamist insurgents took up arms in 2007 to drive out invading Ethiopian troops propping up a Western-backed government which failed to wield any control over swathes of the Horn of Africa nation.
Since then, fighting has killed at least 17,700 civilians and driven more than 1 million from their homes. About 3 million Somalis survive on emergency food aid.
The United Nations refugee agency UNHCR says 49,000 people have fled fighting in Mogadishu in the past two weeks.
Al Shabaab, which Washington says has close ties to al Qaeda, and Islamist guerrilla group Hizbul Islam have been spearheading attacks on the government, allied militia and African Union peacekeepers.
Until Friday, pro-government forces had not looked strong enough to break Shabaab's grip on parts of Mogadishu.
But last week's defection of a veteran warlord with hundreds of fighters under his command may have prompted President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed to order the new offensive.
Defense Minister Mohamed Abdi Gandi said Friday the fighting would go on until the insurgents were beaten.
Experts say pro-government forces will be hard-pushed to extend their reach to distant provinces, increasing the risk of protracted fighting in a country that has known little but violence and anarchy since a dictator was ousted in 1991.
Ahmed has said he wants to talk to al Shabaab and has sent emissaries but the rebels have so far rejected his overtures and responded with insults and more attacks.
An important figure in any reconciliation would be hardline opposition leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who ran Mogadishu and much of southern Somalia alongside Ahmed in late 2006.
The two Islamists -- Aweys was always considered the more hardline -- split after Ahmed joined a U.N.-hosted peace process in neighboring Djibouti and was elected president in January.
"Somalia has no government we recognize," Aweys told Reuters in an interview Friday. "We should not be deceived by Westerners like Sharif."
"We shall defeat the government soon, God willing."
Source: Reuters
No comments:
Post a Comment