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Africa Horn | |
Somalia fighting kills 17 despite peace pact | |
2008-06-19 | |
Fighting between Islamist-led insurgents and allied Somali-Ethiopian troops has killed at least 17 people, residents said on Wednesday, underlining the lack of impact of a U.N.-brokered peace agreement.
Stray bullets from crossfire killed another three in a separate incident about the same time. Mogadishu resident Fatuma Hussein said a mortar landed on her neighbor's house, also on Tuesday night, killing a woman and two children. Then on Wednesday, two policemen died when their car hit a roadside bomb -- a typical tactic in the insurgents' Iraq-style campaign of hit-and-run attacks, bombs and assassinations. Staff at Mogadishu's Madina hospital said they took in 76 wounded people in the last 24 hours, of whom six died there. 'The rest are still under treatment,' one doctor, Dahi Deere, said from the overcrowded and under-equipped hospital. Somalia's government and members of an exiled opposition group signed a U.N.-mediated ceasefire in Djibouti earlier this month, but hardline Islamist leaders and insurgents on the ground rejected the pact. They say they will not talk until thousands of Ethiopian troops backing President Abdullahi Yusuf's government leave the Horn of Africa nation. Somalia has been in near-perpetual conflict since the 1991 toppling of a military dictator. | |
Posted by:Fred |
#3 We found the NVA trail/road system in Vietnam, and did some major damage. The US also had significant assets in-theater, remember? Doing the same for Somalia requires having assets nearby. The closest (at this point)would be Djibouti, and there likely aren't the types necessary for doing the job easily. |
Posted by: Pappy 2008-06-19 19:44 |
#2 I'm surprised the US isn't helping out more with intelligence. We found the NVA trail/road system in Vietnam, and did some major damage. I'm sure we could find the infiltration routes in Somalia with drones, especially since there's no triple-canopy jungle to hide them. Ethiopia has an air force, and I'm sure they have at least a few better weapons they can drop. Start catching these rat-bas$$$$s where they regroup and re-arm. |
Posted by: Old Patriot 2008-06-19 12:57 |
#1 Questions is do the Ethiopian/Somalia govt forces ever kill any bad guys? It's always civilians and police. Maybe they need to go on the offensive for a change instead of being sitting ducks? |
Posted by: Rightwing 2008-06-19 08:48 |