By Mustafa Haji Abdinur
Saturday, June 06, 2009
MOGADISHU (AFP) — Fierce fighting in central Somalia between pro-government militiamen and hardline Islamist insurgents has left at least 64 people dead, elders and witnesses said on Saturday.
"We sent teams to collect the dead bodies in the battle zones and they found 28 more combatants who were killed in Friday's clashes," Moalim Mohamoud Adan, an elder in the town of Guriel, told AFP.
Adan and other local elders had already reported that 36 fighters were confirmed dead late Friday, bringing the overall death toll to at least 64 and dozens of wounded.
The fighting broke out Friday in Wahbo village, near the Ethiopian border, when the Shebab and allied fighters from the Hezb al-Islamiya group tried to recapture the area from pro-government group Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa.
Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa is originally a religious organisation rooted in Somalia's Sufi brand of Islam but it took up arms in parts of Galgudud neighbouring the Ethiopian border earlier this year to challenge the Shebab.
Friday's Shebab-led offensive came a day after Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa's top religious leader officially declared his support for the embattled administration of President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
Adan said nearly all the dead were fighters and witnesses in the Wahbo area, which lies around 400 kilometres (250 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu. He added it was believed very few civilians had been killed.
Muktar Fidow, a spokesman and senior commander for the Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa group, confirmed that the fighting had been very deadly.
"More than 20 dead bodies were found early this morning, most of them were combatants and they were buried outside Guriel," he told AFP by telephone.
The fighting peaked on Friday and the area was reportedly calm on Saturday.
Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage, a spokesman for the Shebab, a militant Islamist armed group suspected of links to Al Qaeda, claimed the insurgents had the upper hand.
"Praise be to Allah, we were victorious and seized Wabho from the enemy. We killed many of them, their bodies are strewn all over the area," he said at a press conference in Mogadishu on Friday.
Several witnesses confirmed to AFP that the insurgents controlled the town but Ahlu Sunna wal Jamaa refused to concede defeat.
"Nobody has full control of Wabho at the moment and heavy fighting is ongoing. They have suffered heavy losses and so have we," Muktar Fidow, one of the group's commanders told AFP by phone from the nearby town of Guriel.
Medical sources in Elbur, a town located 70 kilometres (45 miles) from the main fighting but home to the closest hospital, said that more 60 wounded had been brought in.
"We have received more than 60 injured people. Some of them have bullet wounds to the head... The casualties are hard to assess because the fighting is so far," Elbur hospital medic Mohamed Jama said.
Many wounded fighters bled to death because access was difficult, he added.
Hardline insurgents launched an unprecedented offensive against the transitional federal government on May 7, leaving Sharif holed up in his Mogadishu compound.
Government forces propped up by African Union peacekeepers have since responded, claiming to have regained ground in the capital.
More than 250 people, including many civilians, have been killed in the month-old bout of fighting and close to 100,000 people displaced.
Source: AFP, June 06, 2009