Fighting rages in Somali capital 'as bodies rot in streets'

Heavy shelling and tank fire rocked Mogadishu today, the sixth day of raging battles in Somalia’s capital that have plunged the country deeper into chaos and left more than 200 people dead.

Masked Islamic insurgents clashed with Ethiopian troops backing the fragile Somali government’s forces in the southern part of the battle-scarred coastal city, pounding each other with machine-gun fire, mortars, tank shells and heavy artillery.

Rotting bodies have been left on the streets for days, witnesses said, as it was too dangerous to try to retrieve them. At least four people were killed and six wounded early today, said Medina Hospital director Dahir Dhere.

Halime Ibrahim, who fled from south of the city, which saw the worst fighting for more than 15 years, said she had seen 11 bodies. “I even failed to recognise if they were men or women,” she told The Associated Press.

“Masked Somali fighters who dug in near my house are in an intensive fight with Ethiopian and Somali troops since early morning,” said Hassan Mohamed Ali lives in Tawfiq neighbourhood and opted to remain behind to look after his family’s house. From time to time, Ali was checking the fighting from his window.

Ethiopians are in the north. The insurgency they are trying to end and which emerged after the defeat of the Council of Islamic Courts is operating from the south of the city of 2 million people. Clan and warlord militia have also joined the fight against the Ethiopians and government forces.

A bid earlier this month to wipe out the insurgency left more than 1,000 people dead, many of them civilians. More than 320,000 people have fled the fighting.