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Somalia: 20 Killed, 80 Wounded in Market Attack
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Garowe Online (Garowe)
8 June 2008
Posted to the web 8 June 2008
Heavy fighting between Ethiopian-backed Somali government forces and Islamist-led insurgents killed nearly 20 people Sunday in the dangerous capital Mogadishu, witnesses and officials said.
The fighting erupted early in the morning after joint Somali-Ethiopian troops expanded along major roads leading to Bakara Market, the country's largest marketplace.
Suspected insurgents attacked the soldiers, sparking a deadly battle that included indiscriminate bombardment of the market, according to eyewitnesses.
Ethiopian soldiers
"I saw eight dead bodies near the telecommunications company area," a panicked civilian told Garowe Online moments after she fled to safety.
Another witness said he saw the dead bodies of insurgent fighters, but did not report seeing any dead soldiers on the ground.
Some civilians were killed when artillery shells hit their homes located near Bakara. Others died in the crossfire during face-to-face combat raging between government forces and rebels.
A journalist who was inside Bakara Market during the attack said the fighting was on-and-off, raging for minutes at a time and halting and resuming again with full intensity.
Dahir Dheere, an official at Mogadishu's Medina Hospital, told reporters that 44 wounded victims were admitted today, adding that some of the victims died during surgery.
"The wounded include 12 women and 6 children, and the rest are men including elders," he said.
Officials who spoke for Banadir and Daynile hospitals - also in Mogadishu - told the press that a total of 36 people were admitted with various wounds.
Artillery shells hit Bakara Market, causing the loss of lives and inflicting damage on business buildings.
Employees who spoke for the Hormuud telecommunications company said an artillery shell hit one of their towers, severely impacting mobile phone service across Mogadishu.
Ali "Fadha" Sheikh Yasin, a senior official with the Elman Human Rights group, told journalists later Sunday that today' s violence had interrupted months of relative calm at the market.
"The bombardment of Bakara Market was intended to destroy the calmness experienced at that Market over the past three months," he said.
Today's violence coincides with an ongoing Somali peace initiative under the auspices of the United Nations.
Delegates from the Somali government and an opposition group known as ARS have hit a deadlock in Djibouti, where the talks started late last month.
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It is not clear how much influence the ARS delegates have on insurgents in Mogadishu, but al Shabaab fighters who form the core of the insurgency have refused to join the ARS or participate in the peace talks until Ethiopian troops leave Somali soil.
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