Al Jazeera
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Al-Shabab fighters have attacked a hotel in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, reportedly killing legislators who live there.
At least 15 politicians are believed to have been killed in the attack on Tuesday, with another 40 dying in fighting earlier in the day, Al Jazeera's reporter in the city said.
The hotel is known to be hosting many Somali government officials and politicians.
The flare-up came after al-Shabab fighters declared a "massive" war against what they called "invaders" and attacked army barracks in several districts of Mogadishu on Monday.
At least 29 Somali civilians were killed in clashes between African Union-backed government troops and al-Shabab fighters in the fresh outbreak of violence, medics said.
There was an overnight lull before the battle resumed on Tuesday morning.
"The death toll increased from 11 to 29 civilians since yesterday," Ali Muse, head of Mogadishu ambulance services, said concerning Monday's fighting.
"Our medical teams have also collected 98 injured from a number of neighbourhoods."
Sheikh Ali Mohamoud Rage, al-Shabab's spokesman, had said on Monday that fighters were starting a new war against "invaders", an apparent reference to the 6,000 African Union troops deployed in the country to support government forces.
Ugandan troops
The fighting came days after hundreds of Ugandan troops began arriving in the Somali capital to strengthen the current AU peacekeeping force.
Uganda said last month that it was willing to send 1,200 troops to Somalia, in addition to the 6,000 strong AMISOM mission sent by African Union countries.
"The additional troops began arriving last Friday, they were airlifted to different areas and of course they will continue to arrive," Wafula Wamunyinyi, the AU deputy special representative for Somalia, said on Monday.
Al-Shabab, which has been fighting Somalia's UN-backed government since the start of 2007, recently claimed responsibility for a twin bombing attack in Uganda, which killed more than 70 people who were watching the World Cup.
The group has said that it will continue to undertake strikes in Uganda and Burundi, in east-central Africa, as long as those countries provide troops for the AU peacekeeping force in Somalia.
Somalia has not had an effective central government for nearly 20 years and al-Shabab controls significant portions of the country.
The US and other countries say al-Shabab is linked to al-Qaeda and consider the group a terrorist organisation.
More than 21,000 Somalis have been killed in fighting since the start of the uprising, 1.5 million have been uprooted from their homes and nearly half a million are sheltering in other countries in the region.
Source: Al Jazeera
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