Bloomberg
By Hamsa Omar
Tuesday, July 29, 2008
July 28 (Bloomberg) - Ethiopian and Somali government soldiers killed 13 Islamist fighters in clashes at two military bases in the capital, Mogadishu, said Colonel Dahir Mohamed Hersi, a Somali army spokesman.
The Heela Barise camp housing Ethiopian soldiers in the north of the city, as well a base used by newly trained Somali soldiers, were attacked by the Islamists late yesterday, Hersi said in a telephone interview today. Sheikh Abdi Rihin Isse Adow, a spokesman for the insurgents, confirmed the assaults, though he said the group suffered no casualties.
``We waged simultaneous attacks on both the Ethiopian camp and their puppets,'' Adow said. ``The fighting was too heavy but due to support of our Allah we hit uncountable losses, although no bodies of martyrs were hurt.''
Ethiopian troops invaded Somalia in December 2006 to help the United Nations-backed transitional federal government oust an Islamic militia from southern and central parts of the country. Al-Shabaab, one of the insurgent groups operating in Somalia, has been accused by the U.S. of providing safe-haven and logistical support to al-Qaeda, which aims to establish a caliphate, or Islamic government, in the Horn of Africa nation.
At least four insurgents were captured in yesterday's attack, Hersi said. One government soldier was injured by shrapnel, he added.
To contact the reporter on this story: Hamsa Omar in Mogadishu via Johannesburg at [email protected].