At least ten civilians have been killed in a renewed fighting in Somali capital on Tuesday, eye witnesses and medical sources confirmed.
The fighting between AU forces and Somali government troops on one side and the Al-Qaeda-linked AL-shabab militants on the other side erupted when militants attacked new bases recently set up by the AU forces and Somali forces who have been advancing to militant-held areas for the past several days.
The head of Mogadishu’s main ambulance service Ali Muse Sheik told local media that his medical staff has confirmed the deaths of 5 civilians while collecting more than ten seriously wounded civilians.
“We have collected the wounded civilians including women and children from the main Bakara market and surrounding areas where also five people were killed” Ali Muse told reporters on Tuesday.
Eye witnesses in Hondon district in Mogadishu who were reached for comment confirmed the deaths of five other civilians including a woman and two children when a stray mortar rounded on their home.
“I have set my eyes on the women and her children cut into pieces-It was really a very shocking incident, I am still frustrated” a resident Hadiya Ahmed said in a telephone conversation later on in the day.
For the past several weeks, the African Union Peace keepers in Mogadishu and Somali government forces have been advancing to the militant stronghold of the Bakara market in a bid to seize it.
Fighting has been raging in Mogadishu since early 2007 and at least 23,000 people mainly civilians have been in killed in the restive capital since then. More than 1.5 million others also fled from their homes in the city.
