At Least 17 Killed in Faction Fighting in Somalia

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, July 29, 2002

At Least 17 Killed in Faction Fighting in Somalia

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At least 17 people were killed in Baidoa town, about 245 km northwest of Mogadishu, in a faction fighting between the forces of Colonel Hassan Mohamed Nur Shargudud and his two deputies late Saturday and Sunday.

According to eyewitnesses, the fighting began at a control point known as Bonkay on the way to Huddur district Saturday afternoon.

The forces of the deputy chairmen of the Rahanwein Resistance Army (RRA), Sheikh Adan Madobeh and Mohamed Ibrahim Habsadeh who were manning the control point, have been attacked by the forces of Colonel Shargudud.

The fighting has then spread to other parts of the town, but the two sides were separated by the darkness as the sun set.

Nonetheless, the heavy shelling of mortar rounds by the warringmilitiamen against the residential areas continued throughout the Saturday night, hitting and destroying many houses.

Face-to-face fighting resumed again in the town Sunday morning just after dawn where at least 18 battle wagons and several hundred heavily armed militiamen started fighting around the Soddonka street and down to the eastern and southern parts of the town.

Most of the battle wagons belong to Sheikh Adan Madobe and his colleague Habsadeh while the militiamen of Colonel Shargudud are mainly equipped with assault rifles and RPGs, but they are rich inthe infantry since they belong to the villages surrounding the town.

It is not yet known about the exact casualty figures as a result of this fighting.

But according to eyewitnesses accounts and hospital sources, atleast 17 people were killed and nearly 50 others wounded.

Most of the victims are civilians caught in the middle of the crossfire.

An eyewitness in the town told this reporter on the phone that he has seen the dead body of a six-year-old girl and her mother who was wounded when a mortar round crashed their house in the center of the town.

Most of the victims in the fighting could not make it to the hospital for treatment, since the hospital is situated in the areacontrolled by Sheikh Adan Madobe and his colleague Habsadeh.

The latest reports from Baidoa indicate that calmness had returned to the town shortly before midday Sunday with the militiamen of Colonel Shargudud retreating a bit towards the eastern and southern sides of the town.

Tension is still very high and hundreds of families who only recently returned back to the town had to flee again from their houses. There's no word as yet from any of the warring sides in Baidoa town.

Somalia has been without a central government since the 1991 ouster of Mohammed Siad Barre.

The interim government of Somalia was set up after a conferenceof clan elders in 2000, but so far has failed to convince the warlords to accept its rule, and it controls only parts of the capital Mogadishu and pockets of the rest of the country.

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