Four Somali soldiers killed in Mogadishu attack - AFP

MOGADISHU (AFP) — Four Somali soldiers were killed and several wounded when an army truck was ambushed in the capital, where the government is battling a deadly insurgency, an official and witnesses said Friday.

The soldiers were heading to reinforce their colleagues in Mogadishu's Suqaholaha district overnight when they came under rocket-propelled grenade attack, they said.

"Four of our men were killed and several others wounded when insurgents ambushed them near the Arafat area. I believe the death toll might rise," an army commander told AFP.
Witnesses confirmed the ambush, the latest in a string of attacks in Mogadishu.

"The vehicle was hit by an RPG shell and I saw it burning down as the forces left the scene at night. It was destroyed about 100 metres (yards) from my house," said Muse Farah.
Resident Abdisalam Adan Mohamed said dozens of heavily armed insurgents poured into the area after government forces left.

Amid escalating violence, residents continued fleeing the areas that have been convulsed by fighting between the government, Islamist insurgents and some clan fighters mainly in northern Mogadishu.

"Who can endure a situation where people are killed and harassed everyday?" said Mumino Ali Bashir, a mother of three who was fleeing the Huriwa neighbourhood on Friday.

"I decided to move away from this neighborhood until stability comes back," she added.

"I think this time only cats will be left in the houses because most of the residents fled already and the rest are now leaving," said Haji Abdallah Sugurow, another resident.

Ethiopian troops came to the rescue of Somalia's embattled transitional government last year and ousted an Islamist militia that briefly controlled large parts of the country.

Since then, an Islamist-led insurgency has waged daily guerrilla-style attacks in Mogadishu against the government as well as the Ethiopian and the African Union troops protecting it.
Last week, groups opposed to the Somali government vowed to intensify fighting with the aim of driving out Ethiopian forces, whose presence in Somalia has renewed tensions between the two nations.

The international community and the government have stressed that Ethiopian troops should not leave until an 8,000-strong African Union peacekeeping force is fully deployed.
Yet so far only 1,600 Ugandan troops have arrived in Somalia while other contingents -- including more troops from Uganda and Burundian forces -- have been delayed by a lack of funds or logistical obstacles.

The lack of stability and central authority has also allowed clan-based feuds to erupt and crime to spread in the seaside capital, home to about a million people.

Somalia has lacked an effective government since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was ousted in 1991, touching off a deadly clan-based power struggle that has defied numerous efforts to restore stability.

Violence has raged despite a recent government-sponsored reconciliation conference, which was boycotted by Islamist-led Somali opposition groups.

Source: AFP