At least ten people, most of them civilians, died in Mogadishu during confrontation between Islamists allied to the Somali national unity government and Al-Shabaab fighters on Thursday and Friday, eyewitnesses and officials said here on Friday night.
According to sources, the fighting started when fighters of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), the wing allied to the Somali national unity government, on Thursday attacked a senior commander of Al-Shabaab in northern Mogadishu that caused the death of one of Al-Shabaab’s fighters but the commander managed to escape.
“One Mujahid [holly warrior] from our fighters died in the confrontation,” an Al-Shabaab commander, who declined to give his name, told APA.
Several civilians died and nine others were wounded when the confrontation turned to a heavy gun battle between the Islamists.
“Six people including an infant died in the village when two stray shells landed in a residential area,” Ahmed Ali Omar, a resident in Raderka village north of Mogadishu, told APA by telephone.
“The battle was so heavy that we decided to flee to the outskirts of the village where we have been living for the past two years,” he added.
The sources also said that five others died on Friday afternoon in separate places of northern districts when they were hit by stray bullets in their homes.
Sheikh Ali Mohammed Hussein, Al-Shabaab’s representative in Bandir region, told reporters on Friday that their fighters fought with their “enemies”.
Somalia is a failed state which has not had a functioning central government since 1991. In late January, Somali law makers elected a moderate Islamists as the country’s president. But his government had been rocked by frequent attacks from Islamist fighters and the turmoil of rampant piracy.
Source: APA
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