Mogadishu shelling kills 12 civilians

MOGADISHU (AFP) – Heavy mortar fire between African Union peacekeepers and Islamist insurgents killed at least 12 civilians and left scores wounded in the Somali capital, officials and medics said Monday.

AU forces fired several mortars into areas of north Mogadishu in retaliation for artillery attacks by the rebels late Sunday, killing civilians who have borne the brunt of the relentless attacks between the two sides.

"Our team collected eight bodies of civilians who were killed in the shelling and 55 others who were injured, some of them seriously," said Ali Musa, the head of the war-ravaged city's ambulance service.

Witness Abdulahi Nure said four other civilians were killed by the artillery fire in another neighbourhood.

A police official accused the radical insurgents of using the civilian population as human shields.

"They (rebels) fired mortar shells from the civilian populated areas using them as human shields," the official told AFP on condition of anonymity.

"The terrorist fighters fired mortar shells at the palace and the African Union peacekeepers responded targeting where those mortars were coming from," he added.

One witness, Moahmed Aban Ilbir, said around 20 heavy artillery shells hit his the district of Suqaholaha.

"We are still shocked at this indiscriminate shelling," he said.

The Al Qaeda-inspired Shebab rebels and Hezb al-Islam, another hardline Islamist militia, have repeatedly attacked Somali government forces and the AU peacekeepers since launching an offensive last May.

E.Africa block urges Islamist battle

With much of Mogadishu under insurgent control, retaliation by the AU troops have often ended up killing civilians among whom the rebels live.

The rebels have vowed to topple the internationally-backed government of President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed and drive out the AU troops whom they accuse of occupying the lawless country.

On Friday, at least 10 people were killed when the Shebab militants fired a barrage of mortar shells at a ceremony to mark Sharif's first year in office.

Since their onslaught last year, the hardline rebels have massively reduced the government's control of the war-torn Mogadishu.

The embattled government holds sway in a few streets with the help of the AU troops, whose strength still falls far short of the intended 8,000 troops.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon ruled out any deployment of UN peacekeepers in Somalia until the end of the country's years of civil war.

"Practically and realistically it is not possible at this time to deploy a UN peacekeeping force in Somalia," he told reporters in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa on Saturday. "We need a peace to keep and now there is no peace." The AU has called several times on the UN to take over from its own beleaguered peacekeepers, which have been powerless to stop the advance of the Islamist rebels against a weak transitional government.

African leaders were to discuss Monday the conflict in Somalia on the second day of the 53-member AU bloc summit at its Addis Ababa headquarters alongside other trouble spots in the continent.