Somali militia battle enters seventh day
By Mohamed Ali Bile
MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Mortars, machine guns and rockets
pounded Mogadishu on Saturday in a seventh day of fierce
militia fighting that has killed at least 138 people so far and
which looks set to intensify.
As the street battles dragged on in rundown areas of the
Somali capital, the interim government — powerless to stop the
shooting and unable to enter Mogadishu — called for foreign
intervention to end the worst fighting there in years.
At least five civilians were killed overnight and into
Saturday as gunmen from a powerful alliance of warlords engaged
in close-range firefights and artillery duels with militiamen
backed by the city’s influential Islamic courts.
“Both sides are still firing mortars at each other.
Fighting went on through the night,” Islamic militia leader
Siyad Mohamed told Reuters by telephone.
Analysts view the fighting in the failed Horn of Africa
state as a proxy battle between al Qaeda and Washington, which
is widely believed to be funding the warlords.
The warring parties were massing militiamen and another
warlord, Mohamed Dheere, was said by residents to be on his way
to Mogadishu from his stronghold in Jowhar to join the battle,
foreshadowing more combat.
“The coalition is planning to attack the Islamic court
militia from other fronts,” warlord Ali Nur said.
By Saturday, the battle was in the northern residential
area of Karan, having spread beyond the neighbouring shanty
towns of Siisii and Yaqshid, and some aid workers said they
feared more civilian casualties as munitions kept striking
homes.
“Anxiety is high in Mogadishu. It looks like the worse is
yet to come because their is a very high chance of fighting
engulfing the whole city,” resident Abdifatah Abdikadir said.
Most of the dead and many among the hundreds who were
wounded were non-combatants. Residents continued to flee the
battle zones, taking basic possessions with them.
CALL FOR FOREIGN HELP
The interim government, now based in the southern city of
Baidoa because it is unable to exert much control in the
country of 10 million, appealed for humanitarian aid for the
victims.
“We … call upon and invite the international community to
intervene and get involved in the crucial situation in
Mogadishu by … cooperating fully with the Somali transitional
federal government to rescue the innocent suffering people,”
Information Minister Mohamed Abdi Hayir said in a statement.
Already, the perception of a foreign hand in Mogadishu —
namely the United States — has stoked the fighting between the
Islamic militias and the warlord coalition, which dubbed itself
“Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism.”
Interim President Abdullahi Yusuf and Islamic leaders have
accused Washington of financing the warlords.
But the top U.S. diplomat in Africa on Friday said she did
not know if anti-terrorism warlords battling for control of
Mogadishu got U.S. backing.
“But our policy is very clear. We will work with those
elements that will help us to root out al Qaeda and to prevent
Somalia becoming a safe haven for terrorists, and we are doing
it in the interests of protecting America,” Assistant Secretary
of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer told Reuters.
Warlord Omar Finnish said Islamist militias were harbouring
terrorists sheltering in Somalia’s vacuum of anarchy.
“We decided to remove these elements who are on the run. We
did not form this alliance in order for Somalis to kill each
other,” Finnish told Reuters by telephone.
“These people (Islamic militias) shelter them, feed them
and protect them and are even fighting now to protect them,”
Finnish, also the religious affairs minister, said.
The Islamic side has denied that, but diplomats say they
are sympathetic to a handful of al Qaeda operatives, some
believed to be training and fighting alongside their
militiamen.
The United States has long seen Somalia, without a central
government since warlords ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in
1991, as a likely hideout for terrorists.
(Additional reporting by Guled Mohamed)