Somali Insurgents Vow To Topple Government
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MOGADISHU, Somalia — Pro-government militias and Islamic insurgents battled in Somalia's capital Wednesday for a fourth day, as an insurgent leader vowed his forces would not relent until the government is overthrown.
Since the weekend, both sides have pounded the northern part of the capital, Mogadishu, with mortars and gunfire in the worst violence in recent weeks. The Elman Human Rights Organization said 113 civilians were killed between Saturday and Monday. On Tuesday there was a lull in the fighting. The organization also said 27,200 people had fled their homes as between Saturday and Tuesday.
The renewed violence in the Horn of Africa nation pits pro-government fighters against those allied to al-Shabab, an insurgent group seeking to overthrow the Western-backed government and establish an Islamic state.
Mohamed Haji, a businessmen, said he saw two bodies Wednesday near the Suq Bad market, one of the areas where fighting is taking place. Haji said he saw six wounded people.
Fadumo Ali of Medina Hospital said six people wounded in the battles in northern Mogadishu had been brought in for treatment.
Al-Shabab's chairman, Mukhtar Abu Zubeyr, told local radio stations in an interview Wednesday the insurgents would not stop the fighting.
"It will continue until we topple the so-called government," he said.
The U.S. State Department considers al-Shabab a terrorist organization with links to al-Qaida.
A regular meeting in the Ethiopian capital of U.N., African Union and regional diplomats to review the situation in Somalia called Wednesday for an investigation to identify foreign nations, organization or individuals involved in destabilizing Somalia.
The U.N.'s envoy to Somalia and Somalia's national security minister said Tuesday that foreigners are fighting alongside the Somali insurgents.
Omar Jamal, director of the nonprofit Somali Justice Advocacy Center in Minnesota, said he would be surprised if the government was still standing in a few days, "without getting support of the international community."
"Mogadishu is on the verge of collapse to these maniacs. If that happens, God have mercy on us," Jamal told The Associated Press.
Somali government spokesman Abdulkadir Walayo declined to comment.
Somalia has not had an effective government since 1991, when warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre before turning on one another. Somalia's transitional government was formed in 2004, but has failed to assert control over the country.
The insurgents have been trying to topple the government since late 2006, and the lawlessness has allowed piracy to flourish off Somalia's coast.
The U.S. worries that Somalia could be a terrorist breeding ground, particularly since Osama bin Laden declared his support for al-Shabab. The U.S. accuses al-Shabab of harboring the al-Qaida-linked terrorists who blew up the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
Al-Shabab controls much of southern Somalia. Ahmed's government directly controls only a few blocks of Mogadishu and one border town. But the president has allies among the militias that control much of central Somalia and pockets of the south.
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Associated Press writers Anita Powell in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, and Elizabeth A. Kennedy in Nairobi, Kenya, contributed to this report.
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MOHAMED SHEIKH NOR 05/13/09 03:06 PM ET Associated Press