afrol News, 2 July - At least 39 people have been killed and dozens more injured as Islamist insurgents clashed with Somali and Ethiopian forces in the country's capital, Mogadishu and Mataban, central Somalia, a government official has confirmed.

Islamist insurgents ambushed an Ethiopian army convoy travelling from Guri El near the Ethiopian border to Mataban, about 450 kilometres north of the capital Mogadishu, late yesterday and early today.

The fighting - which is seen as the deadliest in recent months after the signing of Djibouti peace accord - came a week prior to a deadline for the implementation of a truce agreement signed by rival factions last month.

A dweller in the outskirts of Mogadishu, Ms Said Safiya Ahmed said heavy gunfire was exchanged in the clash, adding she had to run for her life to escape. "A mortar hit us as we were running," she said. "Four of my neighbours died on the spot."

Another witness said he saw counted 18 bodies around Mataban town, saying he had also seen the bodies of at least seven Ethiopian soldiers lying near the ambush site.

Islamist insurgents have been staging various attacks against the Somali transitional government, which with the support of Ethiopian troops ousted the Islamist administration of the radical Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) in 2006.

The Islamist group "Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia" signed a three-month ceasefire pact last moth with the government that provided for Ethiopian troops to withdraw from Somali within 120 days from the signing of the pact.

However, another Islamist leader, Mr Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, said insurgents should continue fighting until all Ethiopian troops had left the country.

The African Union has deployed some 2,600 peacekeepers in Mogadishu but the contingent on the ground still falls far short of the 8,000 troops pledged by the continental body and has failed to stem the violence.

Somalia's transitional administration was formed in 2004 with the help of the United Nations, but it has failed to assert real control. After Islamic militants seized control of Mogadishu and most of southern Somalia, the government called in troops from Ethiopia in December 2006 to oust them.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew Dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and turned on each other. Thousands of civilians have been killed in Somalia since 2007, caught in vicious disputes over ancient clan loyalties, religion and government.

By staff writer

© afrol News

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