 Militia battles have raged again in the Somali city of Mogadishu with twelve people killed and 32 others wounded in the renewed fighting. Two militia groups are responsible for Mogadishu's worst gun battles in over a decade.
Ibrahim Maalim, a militia member close to Somalia's internal security minister Mohamed Qanyare, said seven people had been killed and 20 people wounded in fighting between the Islamic courts militia and a warlord alliance in the Siisii area. That adds to five deaths and 12 wounded in overnight fighting already reported earlier in the day.
Ali Nur, a member of the warlord alliance, said fighting resumed in the afternoon after an overnight clash in the same area. Nur said he expected the death toll to rise since the combatants were firing mortars, anti-aircraft missiles and other heavy machine guns at each other from close range. "I can see the mortars and missiles the militias are firing," Nur told Reuters by phone from Mogadishu. "The death toll will rise because some of the mortars are falling on buildings nearly five kilometres away."
| And they were aimed four klicks the other way. |
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