DEADLY SOMALIA CLASHES CONTINUE !
Heavy fighting between Ethiopian troops and Islamist militiamen has continued for a fourth day in Mogadishu, Somalia.
The number of deaths from the clashes is unconfirmed but medical sources say scores more have died in rocket and mortar attacks.
More than 100 people were killed and 200 injured in the first three days of fighting, a local rights group said.
Ethiopian forces have been in Mogadishu since December after helping Somalia's transitional government oust Islamists.
The UN says more than 320,000 people have fled fighting in the Somali capital since February.
'Humanitarian disaster''
One confirmed attack on Saturday was on the al-Barakah market.
The rest of my family fled because they could not [bear to] see the flesh of my son, who is lying in the middle of the house - Isa Gedi, Mogadishu resident.
The number of deaths from the clashes is unconfirmed but medical sources say scores more have died in rocket and mortar attacks.
More than 100 people were killed and 200 injured in the first three days of fighting, a local rights group said.
Ethiopian forces have been in Mogadishu since December after helping Somalia's transitional government oust Islamists.
The UN says more than 320,000 people have fled fighting in the Somali capital since February.
'Humanitarian disaster''
One confirmed attack on Saturday was on the al-Barakah market.
The rest of my family fled because they could not [bear to] see the flesh of my son, who is lying in the middle of the house - Isa Gedi, Mogadishu resident.
A number of people were killed there when mortar rounds landed. Local reports spoke of bodies mutilated beyond recognition.
AFP news agency reported a mortar round also struck a bus in the southern Hodan district, killing four people.
Mortar and rocket fire had continued through the night.
One resident told Reuters a storm had also passed through, adding: "At one point you couldn't tell the difference."
Another resident, Ali Haji, said: "Ethiopians are trying to kill me because I am Somali, and insurgents are not happy because I am not picking up a gun and fighting with them. I have lost all hope."
Madina, said to be the only hospital in operation, is reported to have packed wards with access to it only by roads vulnerable to gunfire.
The UN is warning of a humanitarian disaster. Most of those who have fled lack food and water and hundreds have already died from cholera and diarrhoea, UN humanitarian co-ordinator Eric Laroche said.
Somalia has not had an effective national government for 16 years.
The insurgents are believed to be a mixture of Islamist fighters and militiamen from the Hawiye clan - the largest in Mogadishu.
Violence has intensified this year after the relative calm when the UIC ran the city.
The Ethiopian troops have started to withdraw, to be replaced by an African Union peacekeeping force. But only 1,200 troops, of the 8,000 the AU says it needs, have been deployed.
BBC NEWS REPORT.
posted by jackaranda at 6:45 pm
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