Rival Somali militia resumed heavy gun battles yesterday after a brief lull in the lawless capital where intermittent fighting has killed hundreds and led to a civilian exodus, witnesses said.
Residents reported heavy gunfire in the southern Daynile district, where violence spread this week, but no casualties were reported from the volatile neighborhood.
"The main violence started in Daynile about [9am], but sporadic gunfire was heard earlier," said Daud Mohamed, a resident of the district.
PHOTO: NY TIMES
"Both sides are exchanging heavy gunfire which could be heard in other parts of the capital," he added.
Other witnesses said the southern K4 district and the northern Sisi and Galgalato neighborhoods, the theater of Thursday's bloody skirmishes that claimed 30 lives and wounded 72 others, remained calm but with a heavy presence of militias.
The fighting pits Islamists against the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT), which was set up in February with US backing to curb the growing influence of Islamic courts and track down extremists, including al-Qaeda members, they are allegedly harboring.
The courts, which have declared a holy war against the alliance -- that they say is financed by the "enemy of Islam" -- deny the accusations.
Somalia's largely powerless transitional government, based in Baidoa about 250km northwest of Mogadishu, has blamed both the alliance and the US for the fighting.
The US says it is being "wrongly blamed," although it has refused to confirm or deny its support for the ARPCT.
But US officials and Somali officials and warlords have told reporters that Washington has given money to the ARPCT, which is one of several groups it is working with to curb what it says is a growing threat from radical Islamists in Somalia.
The Horn of Africa nation of some 10 million has been without a functioning central authority since the 1991 fall of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre plunged it into anarchy, with warlords battling for control of a patchwork of fiefdoms.
Meanwhile, horrible memories have followed those who have fled Mogadishu this week for the relative safety of Marka, about 80km down the coast.
At night, the evacuees still dream of the artillery shells that exploded around them. They cannot get the rat-a-tat of automatic weapon fire out of their heads.
"When you witness a 1-year-old whose leg has been cut off by a mortar shell, it stays with you," said Halima Ahmed, 50, who left Mogadishu two days ago with her 85-year-old mother in a donkey cart. "We've witnessed so many things."
The exodus has come on foot, inside packed minibuses and atop overloaded trucks. Some fled with nothing but their children in their arms.
Others took mattresses and cooking pots. All sought to outrun this nasty war, the worst Somalia has seen since the fall of its central government in 1991.
The fighting pits the capital's notorious warlords against Islamist leaders trying to turn the country into a religious state.
The US appears to be in the mix as well, with officials saying Washington is concerned about foreign terrorists in the country and is working with Somali leaders.
The US officials say a small number of foreign fighters with links to al-Qaeda are operating within an alliance of Somali Islamic groups and hope to turn the anarchic country into a place not unlike Afghanistan under the Taliban.
The officials would not confirm or deny reports that warlords were being paid to apprehend the foreigners.
For many of the people running for their lives from Mogadishu, the fighting is as incomprehensible as so many past conflicts: a shootout between rival militias, both heavily armed with all manner of weaponry, in which civilians are the ones bleeding the most.
"I have no idea who is fighting who," said Hadiyo Mohamed, 25, who fled Mogadishu three days ago with three young children. "I was just going about my daily activities as a housewife when shelling began."
The fighting erupted in February, only to worsen as the months have passed.
Fueled by arms from foreign governments in the region and beyond, the battle for power has cost more than 300 lives, even as the leaders on both sides portray themselves as defenders of the people.
"We don't consider either side as good," said Issa Ali, 40, who fled with his wife and three children. "God knows which is the best to rule Mogadishu."
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
HYPOCRISY? The Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday asked whether Biden was talking about China or the US when he used the word ‘xenophobic’ US President Joe Biden on Wednesday called for a hike in steel tariffs on China, accusing Beijing of cheating as he spoke at a campaign event in Pennsylvania. Biden accused China of xenophobia, too, in a speech to union members in Pittsburgh. “They’re not competing, they’re cheating. They’re cheating and we’ve seen the damage here in America,” Biden said. Chinese steel companies “don’t need to worry about making a profit because the Chinese government is subsidizing them so heavily,” he said. Biden said he had called for the US Trade Representative to triple the tariff rates for Chinese steel and aluminum if Beijing was