Sides fight for control of capital; Muslim group might have al-Qaida ties
MOGADISHU(AP), Somalia – Islamic
militiamen and secular fighters battled for control of Somalia’s capital
Wednesday despite promises of a cease-fire, and the death toll rose to at least
96, with nearly 200 wounded.
The firing of heavy weapons echoed
through the city as fighting spread to another Mogadishu neighborhood. The
battle between the Islamic Court Union and the Alliance for the Restoration of
Peace and Counterterrorism has centered on the northern neighborhood of Sii-Sii,
with neither side gaining an advantage.
Most of the victims were civilians
caught in the crossfire.
“Despite the Islamic courts’
unilateral cease-fire, there are no traces of an end to the hostilities,” said
Abdi Kariin, a foreign exchange dealer.
Pleas to end
violence
The U.N. secretary general’s special representative for
Somalia, Francois Lonseny Fall, issued a statement appealing for “leaders on
both sides to step back from the brink and reconsider the damage they are
inflicting on the population.”
“Whatever the allegiances, the
intermittent conflict between heavily armed camps has resulted in indiscriminate
loss of life and has created fear and chaos for those civilians trapped in the
crossfire,” he said. “The indiscriminate use of heavy machine guns, mortars,
rocket-propelled grenades and artillery in and between urban areas is
unacceptable.”
Islamic Court Union chairman Sheik
Sharif Sheik Ahmed had said his group would observe a cease-fire from late
Tuesday, but it never took hold.
Abdulahi Shir’wa, a civil leader,
said neutral groups were trying to meet with the two militias to negotiate
another cease-fire, without success.
Nuur Daqle, one of the alliance’s
commanders, said he was ready to observe a cease-fire and had been told that the
Islamic court militias were also ready to stop fighting, but that so far, he had
seen no let up in the battle.
“We are ready to cease fire, but
the so-called Islamic courts are unreliable, they are offering, but keep on
shooting at us,” he said. A spokesman for the courts could not be immediately
reached from comment.
Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi
also called on all sides to stop fighting from his government’s headquarters in
Baidoa, 150 miles west of Mogadishu. Although his government has U.N. backing,
it has so far failed to assert itself outside of Baidoa.
No real
government
Somalia has had no effective central government since
1991, when warlords ousted longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and turned on
each other — carving this nation of an estimated 8 million people into a
patchwork of anarchic, clan-based fiefdoms.
Islamic fundamentalists have
portrayed themselves as an alternative capable of bringing order and peace, but
they have not hesitated to use force and have allegedly linked up with al-Qaida
terrorists.
The secular Alliance for the
Restoration of Peace and Counterterrorism militia and the Islamic Court Union
militia have been squaring off for several weeks to stake out strategic
positions in preparation for a larger battle for control of Mogadishu.
Rumors abound that the United
States is backing the secular forces. President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed told The
Associated Press last week that he believes Washington is supporting the secular
alliance, which includes ministers in an interim Cabinet, as a way of fighting
several top al-Qaida operatives that are being protected by radical clerics.
Ahmed offered no evidence, and the U.S. has said only that it had met with a
wide variety of Somali leaders to try to fight international terrorists in the
country.
Meanwhile, victims are pouring
into the capital’s hospitals.
“Referring to the information I
receive from the main hospitals in Mogadishu this morning, at least 90 people
were killed and nearly 200 others wounded since the fighting flared up on
Sunday,” said Dr. Mohamed Hassan of Ayaan Hospital.
Officials later said another six
people had died in Wednesday’s fighting.
SOURCE: AP
