Health worker, residents say 8 killed in fighting in Somali capital; hundreds flee

8 killed in fighting in Somali capital

MOGADISHU, Somalia — At least eight people, including a six-year-old, were killed Friday as mortars pounded the Somali capital during an attack on government soldiers by an extremist Islamic group, witnesses said, as hundreds of residents fled Mogadishu.

Hundreds of al-Shabab fighters launched an attack early Friday on newly trained soldiers stationed in the capital’s northern Shibis and Abdul-azis neighborhoods.

“They came to the front line in their hundreds, opened fire on our soldiers and then we fought them off,” said Col. Aden Ibrahim Kalmoy, the military spokesman.

The government forces also fired mortars into areas controlled by al-Shabab, killing eight civilians.

Ali Muse of Mogadishu’s ambulance service said a mortar landed on a minivan, killing five people inside, including a six-year-old boy. Muse said the ambulance service took 17 other people wounded in that minivan to hospitals.

The chairman of Shibis district, Kulmiye Yabarow Harun, said one civilian in his district was killed during the fighting. Three others, including a government soldier, were wounded, said Harun.

A mortar killed two civilians in the Hamar Bile neighborhood in southern Mogadishu, said Abdullahi Hussein. Four traders in the vegetable market in the neighborhood were also wounded, said Hussein.

Hundreds of residents, thinking a much-talked about government offensive against al-Shabab had begun, fled in minivans, on donkey carts or pushing wheelbarrows carrying their household goods. Others just walked.

“I have been trying to stay but I always live in shock and fear whenever I hear fighting I think the major government offensive has begun,” said Halima Ahmed, a mother with seven children, who was leaving the city.

“We cannot live in constant fear and worry,” Ahmed said.

In Geneva, the U.N. refugee agency said it is bracing for neighboring countries to see a mass exodus of civilians seeking to escape the violence in Mogadishu.

Melissa Fleming, a spokeswoman for the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, said the agency is stepping up preparations in Kenya and other East African countries.

Fleming said UNHCR has received information from local aid groups that 24 people had been killed and 40 wounded by fighting in Mogadishu since Wednesday.

According to the U.N. refugee agency, more than 250,000 people have left the city since last May.

After Friday prayers al-Shabab and Hizbul Islam leaders and their fighters and supporters held demonstrations in Mogadishu and three other southern Somalia towns to denounce the Somali government and the governments of Ethiopia, Burundi, Uganda and Djibouti.

“We call for our people to be ready for a war on our enemy. Their military preparation will not deter us from our holy war,” said Sheik Muqtar Robow, a senior al-Shabab leader.

“We will attack them once we unite the Somali Holy fighters, then we will unite with our brothers in Yemen, Afghanistan, Iraq and Chechnya to help them in their war against the infidels,” he told congregants in a Mogadishu mosque after the prayers.

Demonstrators burnt the flags of Ethiopia, Burundi, Uganda and Djibouti and portraits of Somali President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed.

Ethiopia had troops in Somalia for two years and fought with the Islamic insurgents. Burundi and Uganda are the only countries that have contributed troops to the 5,100-strong African Union peacekeeping force in Mogadishu that is guarding key government installations. Neighboring Djibouti has said it will contribute troops to that force.

Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991 when warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. The warlords then turned on each, plunging the Horn of Africa nation into chaos and anarchy.

The government has said it is planning to launch an offensive against al-Shabab in Mogadishu to rout it out of the city.

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Associated Press writer Frank Jordans in Geneva contributed to this report.