Tuesday, December 18, 2007
Residents were forced to flee under a hail of fire as the soldiers, backed by Ethiopian allies, attacked an insurgent hideout in the SOS area for most of Monday afternoon.
"My wife, first-born daughter and 18-year-old son died when a mortar hit my house," Mohamed Osman, a nurse at the
"My other five children are in hospital wounded. Among them is a 3-year-old daughter in critical condition," he said.
Residents said two insurgents were killed in the fierce fighting that also killed a man in a neighboring village.
Near daily fighting in
The insurgents, remnants of a hardline sharia courts group, have been fighting the interim government after they were routed out of the seaside capital a year ago.
(Reporting by Abdi Sheikh).