Islamist rebels shelled Somalia’s newly rebuilt parliament in Mogadishu on Sunday, sparking clashes with government forces and African Union peacekeepers that left 11 civilians dead, officials said.
The violence came as political turmoil erupted inside parliament itself, with many of the war-wracked nation’s lawmakers voting to sack the speaker after he called for the president to sack the prime minister.
Hardline Shebab militants, who are linked to al-Qaeda, opened fire with mortars in the direction of the recently renovated parliament building, which was preparing to host a session for the first time in 20 years.
Government troops and forces from the African Union retaliated with heavy artillery and mortars toward the city’s southern Bakara area, one of the main rebel strongholds, officials and medical sources said.
“Several artillery salvos and mortars hit Bakara market. Eleven civilians were killed and 52 wounded,” said Ali Muse, head of the Mogadishu ambulance service. “The terrorists tried to attack the parliament building, but the government forces defeated them and many of their fighters were killed in the clashes,” said Ali Hassan, a government security official.
The building did not appear to have been hit by the militant shelling.
Meanwhile, the Russian military did not intend to kill Somali pirates who are believed to be dead after being set afloat at sea in a small boat about 10 days ago, a senior commander was quoted as saying yesterday.
Navy captain Ildar Akhmerov confirmed earlier reports that the 10 captured pirates and their one dead comrade who had attempted to seize a Russian oil tanker were put to sea in a boat without any navigation equipment.
“We did not have the task of destroying the pirates during the operation to free the tanker. There was one main goal — to free the ship’s crew,” Akhmerov was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency.
“Our military medics gave the necessary medical help to all of the wounded bandits. We loaded the dead bandit’s body onto one of the pirates’ boats with the rest of the pirates and sent it to the nearest coast, toward Somalia,” he said.
“We loaded water, food and all their other things — except the confiscated weapons, boarding ladders and navigation tools — into the pirates’ boat,” he said. “The further fate of the released pirates is not known to us.”
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