Saturday, October 06, 2007
Two elderly women were shot dead overnight in the volatile Suqaholaha district, and a third civilian, identified as a judiciary officer, was gunned down in SOS area in southern Mogadishu, witnesses told AFP.
The killings come a day after clashes killed at least eight people, including a prominent former army general, in the city that has been the epicentre of bloodletting for the last 16 years.
"The crackdown operations will continue until we root out the insurgents who threaten the security situation in Mogadishu," police spokesman Abduwahid Mohamed Hussein told AFP.
The recently-formed Alliance for the Re-Liberation of Somalia (ARS), an umbrella group of all anti-government forces, has vowed to intensify the insurgency until they drive out Ethiopian troops deployed in Mogadishu as allies of the transitional government.
Ethiopia sent thousands of troops last year to help the weak government forces oust Islamist militants, who have been accused of ties to terrorism groups.
At least 1,500 African Union peacekeepers who were deployed early this year have failed to stem the insurgency that ensued, with defeated militants resorting to guerrilla tactics.
Somalia has lacked an effective government since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre touched off a deadly clan-based power struggle that has defied numerous efforts to restore stability.
Source: AFP, Oct 06, 2007