Ethiopian tanks and artillery shelled an insurgent stronghold in north Mogadishu yesterday, as ceasefire talks floundered and rumors spread that a top Islamic rebel had arrived in the capital.
The heavy weapons fire was in support of Somali government troops attempting to clear insurgents from a neighborhood known for housing Islamic radicals. A missile slammed through the roof of a nearby children's hospital packed with wounded civilians late on Wednesday.
Leaders from the Hawiye clan were expected to meet again yesterday with Ethiopian army officers to negotiate a ceasefire. A clan leader who attended the meeting said the Ethiopian officers wanted the elders to hand over fighters from the Council of Islamic Courts military wing, the Shabab.
The Shabab, which the US accuses of having ties to al-Qaeda, have taken credit for a string of suicide bombings against Ethiopian troops. The leader who attended the meeting, but asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the talks, said the elders denied any knowledge about the Shabab or al-Qaeda suspects believed to be in the country.
Meanwhile, bodyguards linked to a top Islamic extremist, Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, arrived in Mogadishu on Wednesday, sparking rumors that Aweys and other Shabab leaders were leading the fighting against the Somali and Ethiopian troops. Most of the courts' leadership has either fled the country, or been in hiding since Ethiopia intervened in December to prop up the government.
The shell that hit the children's hospital on Wednesday exploded in a ward housing between 20 and 30 wounded adults, said Wilhelm Huber, regional director for the SOS Children's Villages. The children had been evacuated earlier because shells were hitting the compound, Huber said.
Five missiles hit the grounds in the lunchtime attack, but only one hit a ward, Huber said. People were injured, he said, but he did not have details due to the chaotic situation and because wounded people were already on the ward.
"What is happening now cannot go on," he said from Nairobi, Kenya, where he is based. He said he did not believe the hospital had been deliberately targeted, but that the shell clearly had come from government forces because of the direction of the missiles.
"People are desperate," Huber said. "This is a tragic situation."
Somali government officials were not immediately available for comment.
Meanwhile, analysts said on Wednesday that US and Ethiopian military intervention in Somalia had destroyed a fragile stability in this battle-scarred nation, as more than a week of unrelenting violence trapped desperate civilians in their homes with gunfire and artillery shells raining down outside.
The leaders of an Islamic movement that was driven from power in December by the government and its Ethiopian backers were still active, and popular support for the group is unlikely to melt away, according to a report by British-based international affairs think-tank Chatham House.
The Council of Islamic Courts ruled much of southern Somalia for six relatively peaceful months last year before being ousted by Somali troops and their Ethiopian allies, along with US special forces. Radicals in the council rejected a secular government and have been accused of having ties to al-Qaeda.
Rights groups say more than 350 people have been killed in eight straight days of fighting..
The Somali government and its Ethiopian allies are trying to quash a growing Islamic insurgency that sprang from the collapse of the Islamic movement, but civilians are getting caught in the crossfire.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of