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Somalia: 13 Killed in Capital After Insurgents Attack Military Post
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Garowe Online (Garowe)
27 April 2008
Posted to the web 28 April 2008
Garowe
At least 13 people were killed in Somalia's war-battered capital Saturday night after Islamist guerrillas attacked a military post, witnesses reported.
Among the dead were nine government soldiers and two insurgents. A mother and her child were killed when a mortar slammed into their home, according to neighbors.
Local sources said insurgents at first launched mortars on Villa Baidoa, a major Somali army base in Mogadishu.
Face-to-face street fighting then followed the mortars, with insurgents and soldiers exchanging gunfire for nearly two hours.
The Islamist fighters were successful in briefly seizing Villa Baidoa, where witnesses reported seeing the guerillas collecting many weapons, including machineguns, rockets and mortar shells.
On Sunday morning, there were no government troops at Villa Baidoa and the building reportedly suffered extensive damage from last night's deadly battle.
No government official has publicly addressed the deadly attack on Villa Baidoa, where reliable sources reported that two military officers were among the dead.
Islamist-led insurgent groups have waged a relentless guerrilla war against the Somali interim government and its Ethiopian military backers since January 2007, when Mogadishu's Islamic Courts rulers were overthrown by Ethiopian-backed government troops.
Meanwhile, Mogadishu Mayor Mohamed "Dheere" Omar has accused al Shabaab insurgents for a brutal killing inside a mosque last week.
Ethiopian soldiers have been widely condemned for the massacre at north Mogadishu's al Hidaya Mosque, where upwards of 20 people were killed.
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But Mayor Mohamed Dheere alleged that al Shabaab guerrillas ran into the mosque with their weapons after being chased by Ethiopian soldiers, where they shot and killed the mosque leader and others inside who refused to allow al Shabaab fighters to enter with weapons.
In a separate incident, five people were wounded in the south-central Somali town of Baidoa after suspected insurgents hurled hand grenades inside Hotel Alami, sources said.
Several Somali lawmakers, who are based in Baidoa, were reportedly staying at the hotel when the grenade attack took place.
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