Nine civilians were killed and over 20 others wounded when the newly arrived Ugandan peacekeepers were ambushed late Wednesday by unknown assailants in the Somali capital Mogadishu, hospital sources confirmed Thursday.
"Nine people died as a result of the wounds, most of them at the spot. Some 20 injured people, all civilians, are in the hospital," said Dr. Dahir Mohamed Mohamoud, vice chairman of Medina hospital in Mogadishu.
Dahir expected the casualties to rise as some injured people could not reach the hospital immediately.
"The peacekeepers were provoked but fortunately did not suffer any casualties," Salad Ali Jelle, deputy defense minister, told Xinhua.
The troops were ambushed as their convoy moved through the capital. No one has claimed responsibility for the ambush.
The Ugandan troops arrived in Mogadishu Tuesday as part of an 8, 000-strong force that the African Union and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development have proposed to deploy in Somalia to help the fledgling transitional government restore law and order.
The soldiers came under mortar fire only hours after their arrival, but none of them were killed or injured.
Somalia has not had an effective national government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former ruler Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another, throwing the country into anarchy.
The transitional government formed in 2004 with U.N. help gained control of most part of the Horn of Africa country early this year with the support of Ethiopian soldiers, but they are attacked nearly on daily basis.
Source: Xinhua, Mar 08, 2007