Saturday, May 13, 2006; Posted: 4:52 a.m. EDT (08:52 GMT)
MOGADISHU, Somalia (CNN) — Fighting between transitional government forces and Islamic fighters in Somalia continued into early Saturday, leading to more deaths in the streets.
Witnesses said at least seven people were killed, adding to a death toll that had already topped 130 in recent days.
Most of those killed have been civilian bystanders. Many were children. Hundreds of others have been wounded.
The heavy battles have been in the Sii-Sii neighborhood, a residential area of northern Mogadishu, with artillery and mortar fire involved.
The transitional government forces are made of aligned secular warlords, while the Muslim fighters are a coalition of radical Islamic leaders, known as the Islamic Court Union.
One prominent leader of an Islamic faction was killed Thursday, and his body remained in the streets for a day, until his funeral Friday. Locals identified him as Adam Galbile with the group al-Furqan.
International concerns about the east African nation have been growing amid reports the al Qaeda terrorist network may have increased its presence in the chaotic state in recent years.
The battles under way pit the so-called Mogadishu Anti-Terrorism Coalition against a union of Islamic fighters who support Islamic Sharia law in the capital.
The anti-terrorism coalition argues the Islamists are allied with al Qaeda; the Islamists accuse the United States of funneling cash to the warlords.
U.S. officials say the United States has supported Somalia’s anti-terrorism efforts. U.S. officials have also decried the violence taking place in Mogadishu.
The warlord alliance accuses the Islamic leaders of having ties to al Qaeda, the union says the warlords are puppets of the United States.
Islamic fundamentalists have portrayed themselves as a force capable of bringing order and peace to a country that has had no effective central government since 1991, when the dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted.
They have risen to prominence as a U.N.-backed transitional government has tried to assert control from Baidoa, 240 kilometers (150 miles) west of Mogadishu, because the capital is considered unsafe.
Some of the warlords behind the alliance are members of the transitional parliament, though they are fighting the Islamic group on their own.
Both sides have been gearing up for a major battle for control of the city in recent weeks.
Earlier this week, the U.N. Security Council ignored recommendations for targeted sanctions and a tighter existing arms embargo in Somalia, despite the spike in violence.(U.N. ignores Somalia sanctions plea)
The recommendations Wednesday had come from one of the council’s own committees, which warned that warlords in Somalia — a nation of 10 million –routinely violate the current arms embargo and have enriched themselves by selling fishing licenses and exporting charcoal.
CNN journalist Mohamed Amin contributed to this report.
Source: CNN, May 13, 2006
