Fighting in Somalia 123 killed
Sunday, June 7, 2009 at 2:09 pm
MOGADISHU: In one of the worst flare-ups of the year, fighting between pro-government and rival groups kills 123 people in the Somalian town of Wabho.
The rebel group has denied a pro-government group statement that their leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a 62-year-old cleric, has been killed, calling the claim a propaganda stunt.
Witnesses said on Saturday that scores of bodies lay in the streets of Wabho after fighters from the al-Shabaab and Hezb-ul-Islam groups battled the moderate Islamist group Ahl-e Sunna Waljamaa for control.
The local Elman Peace and Human Rights Organization said it had confirmed 123 fighters killed in the fighting.
An insurgency that broke out in early 2007 – the latest in 19 years of incessant conflict in Somalia – has killed around 18,000 civilians and thousands of fighters.
The chaos has also drawn foreign fighters into Somalia, enabled piracy to flourish offshore, and unsettled the whole region, putting East African neighbors on high security alert.
In Mogadishu, al-Shabaab have been battling the security forces of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed. In the central region, pro- and anti-government militias have been fighting all year, with towns changing hands regularly.
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