Somalia: Heavy fighting kills 42

Published on Wednesday 18th June 2008

Somalia: Nineteen Somali troops are killed as the army launches an attack to capture Heliwa and Suuqa Holaha districts in northern Mogadishu.

The Jamhuuriya and Suuqa Holaha districts were turned into a scene of hell when heavily armed Ethiopian forces aided by Somali soldiers clashed with the forces loyal to the Union of the Islamic Courts (UIC).

Somali military forces were pushed back but the Ethiopian soldiers took position and fought back with the UIC fighters.

During the gunfight, some eleven Ethiopian soldiers were also killed after the Al-Shabaab fighters joined the UIC combatants in the struggle against the Ethiopian and Somali forces.

Ethiopian soldiers pulled back and began firing shells on civilian people where 12 civilians were killed and dozens were injured, according to Press TV correspondent in Mogadishu.

The rain of fires have trapped civilian people, who sought a way to escape from the inferno.

"This is a clear genocide," said Mohammad Hassan Haad, the Hawiye clan leader.

"They are tired of asking international community to expel Ethiopians from Somalia and sue them for genocide acts they commit. They are not afraid of what they do... and they continue massacring the civilians", Haad, the spokesman of Hawiye clan, told Press TV.

Amid the heavy gunfight, doctors and medical teams appealed the warring sides to stop clashes to rescue the injured, but they needed a bigger voice to be heard by the fighting parties.