Heavy fighting broke out Thursday in the Somali capital Mogadishu as government forces backed by African Union troops launched an assault on an insurgent stronghold, officials and witnesses said. Several civilians were injured in the fighting, medics said.
The clashes come just a day after the UN World Food Programme began an airlift of emergency relief into the war-torn capital, to bring supplies for thousands at risk of starvation from an extreme drought in the Horn of Africa. “There is heavy fighting this morning in several locations, it is too early to say about casualty numbers, but there are some civilians who were injured in the crossfire,” said Ali Muse, the head of Mogadishu’s ambulance service.
Fighting erupted near the city’s key Bakara market and Suqbacad areas, with both sides exchanging heavy machinegun and artillery fire. Witnesses told AFP that the AU troops and tanks crossed a road that has acted as a frontline in their war with the hardline Shebab insurgents, and moved into the Suqbacad area. “The fighting is very heavy and there are tanks belonging to the AU forces,” said Muktar Ahmed, a resident of the Suqbacad neighbourhood. “The few people who still were in the area have now started to flee,” he added.