| Well, they actually didn't die for Mog... |
On Saturday, Somali Transitional Federal Government (TFG) troops and a
l-Shabaab... Harakat ash-Shabaab al-Mujahidin aka the Mujahideen Youth Movement. It was originally the youth movement of the Islamic Courts, now pretty much all of what's left of it. They are aligned with al-Qaeda but operate more like the Afghan or Pakistani Taliban. The organization's current leader is Ibrahim Haji Jama Mee'aad, also known as Ibrahim
al-Afghani. Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, a Kenyan al-Qaeda member, is considered the group's military leader...
fighters fought a battle in the Wadajir district of Mogadishu, which is controlled by government forces, a Press TV correspondent reported.
According to witnesses, gunnies attacked Somali troops patrolling the area and the ensuing exchange of gunfire lasted about two hours.
Witnesses say they saw 13 bodies in the streets, and the corpse count is expected to rise.
Local residents also said that the government forces prevented efforts to gather the dead bodies and to bring the injured people to a hospital.
Government troops say al-Shaboobs have been chased out of southern Mogadishu, which is reportedly now under government control.
However,
a poor excuse is better than no excuse at all...
locals told Press TV that al-Shaboobs are still in the area and are staging hit-and-run attacks against government troops.
Drought and famine have affected more than 11.8 million people across Somalia, Kenya, and Ethiopia.
Somalia has been the hardest-hit country in what is being described as the worst drought in the Horn of Africa in 60 years.
According to the United Nations
...a lucrative dumping ground for the relatives of dictators and party hacks...
, a quarter of Somalia's 9.9 million people are now either internally displaced or living outside the country as refugees.