Mogadishu police chief among 11 killed in clashes

[June 17, 2009]  MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Somali government forces attacked rebel strongholds in Mogadishu on Wednesday, triggering battles that killed at least 11 people, including the capital's police chief, witnesses and officials said.

Residents cowered in their homes or took cover behind buildings as mortars slammed into the city. Islamist fighters wearing headscarves and ammunition belts draped over their shoulders were seen arriving from the outskirts of the capital to join the battle.

"A mortar landed on a neighbor's house and killed two people and injured four others," said Abdiwali Dahir.

Police spokesman Col. Abdullahi Hassan Barise confirmed the death of police chief Col. Ali Said, but had no further details.

Another witness said he saw five corpses lying in the capital's battle-scarred streets. Farah Abdi told The Associated Press on the phone as the sound of heavy gunfire echoed in the background that three were civilians. Abdi said that residents identified the other two as the bodies of an Islamist fighter and a government soldier.

An administrator at Medina Hospital, Ali Ade, said the hospital received 39 wounded people. Ade said three of them died from their wounds.

Abdulqadir Haji of Amin Voluntary Ambulance services said his team ferried 20 wounded people to hospitals.

Mogadishu resident Hanad Abdi Garun, who was huddled up in his house in Hodan district in the capital's south, said government forces brought in more reinforcements overnight before they started the offensive against Islamist bases.

"This is the strongest fighting we have seen in recent months," said resident Asha Moalim. "We are ducking inside our rooms."

A surge of violence in Somalia's capital since last month has killed about 200 people as insurgents battle the government and its allies. Insurgents want to topple the Western-backed government and install a strict Islamic state.

The government only controls a few blocks of Mogadishu with the help of an African Union peacekeeping force that guards the air and sea ports and other key government installations. Different Islamic insurgent groups control the rest of Mogadishu.

The U.N. says the conflict between the government forces and Islamist fighters has displaced more than 122,000 people since the start of the latest fighting on 7 May.

Somalia has had no effective central government for nearly two decades. The lawlessness on land has also allowed piracy to thrive off the Somali coast, making Somalia the world's top piracy hotspot.

[Associated Press; By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN]

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