At least nine civilians have been killed in festivities between African Union troops and anti-government fighters in Somalia, medical sources and witnesses say.I've often wondered if the occasional AU or al-Shabaab casualty is accidental...
Three days of heavy fighting
... as opposed to the more usual light or sporadic fighting...
in the strife-torn capital has claimed at least 30 lives and injured another 50 people, a Press TV correspondent reported form Mogadishu.
There have been concerns over the increasing number of civilian casualties, as the government of the lawless Horn of Africa nation and pro-government troops seek to defend the country's fragile government, our correspondent said.
In Tuesday's attack, mortars fired by the AU forces hit the busy Bakara market in southern Mogadishu, leading to most of the civilian tolls, witnesses told AFP.
"Our medical team has collected around nine civilians who were killed in the shelling in Bakara market and neighborhoods in northern Mogadishu's Karan district. They also reported 21 injured civilians," said Ali Muse, the head of Mogadishu's ambulance service.
Other witnesses put the civilian corpse count at 11.
"The African forces started firing heavy artillery shells at Bakara and other neighborhoods after fighting broke out at their positions in Hodan and Karan districts. I saw 11 civilians killed in the shelling, five of them in one spot at Bakara," AFP quoted a witness, Omar Moalim Adan, as saying.
However,
The infamous
However...
Somali government forces have denied accusations by residents that Ugandan and Burundian soldiers serving under the AU mission in Somalia used excessive force and were firing indiscriminately at residential areas.
"The violent elements were firing mortars and anti-aircraft weapons during the fighting and the African Union troops returned fire," said Abdi Isa, a government security official.
"But I can assure you that they never targeted civilian populated areas," he added.
Boilerplate follows...
Somalia has lacked a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
Clashes between rival factions, famine, and disease have claimed over one million lives in the past two decades.
There are more than 1.4 million internally displaced people in Somalia, of whom over 300,000 are sheltering in Mogadishu.
Most of the displaced live in poor and degrading conditions in makeshift camps in southern and central Somalia, according to the United Nations, aka the Oyster Bay Chowder and Marching Society High Commissioner for Refugees.