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Helicopter shot down in Mogadishu

MOGADISHU (SOMALIA): Rebels shot down a helicopter gunship in Mogadishu on Friday in a second day of battles as Ethiopian and Somali forces sought to crush a militancy by Islamists and clan militia.

At least 30 persons, and probably far more, have died.

Shells rained down on the capital and deafening tank fire shattered homes, as hundreds of guerrillas replied with barrages of mortars, missiles and rocket-propelled grenades.

As terrified residents hid in their homes, reporters watched from rooftops as two Ethiopian helicopters fired on a militant stronghold before one of them was struck by a missile.

``Smoke billowed from the cabin and it turned towards the ocean,'' one witness, Swiss journalist Eugen Sorg, said.

``It crashed at the south end of the airport runway.''

Black smoke poured into the air and several explosions were heard booming from the crash site by the Indian Ocean coast.

The joint Ethiopian and Government offensive was the bullet-scarred city's worst fighting for months. — Reuters

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