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Somalia claims victory over insurgents

— PHOTO: AFP

FLEEING FIGHTING: Somali families leaving Mogadishu with their belongings on Thursday.

MOGADISHU: Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi claimed victory over Islamist insurgents in Mogadishu on Thursday, after nine days of street battles using tanks and artillery that have left hundreds dead.

``We have won the fighting against the insurgents,'' he told The Associated Press by telephone from the Somali capital, saying small, mopping-up operations were under way. ``The worst of the fighting in the city is now over.''

Western diplomats, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of damaging relations with the interim government, were sceptical of the claims. They said the insurgents had suffered large numbers of casualties and were running low on ammunition, but were not yet defeated.

Machine gun and artillery fire could still be heard in the south of Mogadishu, a wrecked coastal city of 2 million persons.

Mr. Gedi said the 3,40,000 Somalis who have fled the worst fighting the city has seen for the last 15 years could now begin returning to their homes.

He said government forces and their Ethiopian allies had captured an insurgent stronghold in the northern part of the city and that more than 100 fighters had surrendered. The city should be secure by Friday, he added.

``People can now return to their homes,'' he said. ``The rest of the fighting will be over soon. We have captured the stronghold of the terrorists. We will capture any terrorists who have escaped. Some are in the eastern part of the city.''

Earlier on Thursday, Ethiopian tanks and artillery had pounded the northern stronghold, as cease-fire talks foundered and rumours spread that a top Islamist rebel had arrived in the capital. But most of the heavy guns fell silent midmorning.

A missile slammed through the roof of a nearby children's hospital packed with wounded civilians late on Wednesday. The bodyguards linked to a top Islamist extremist, Sheik Hassan Dahir Aweys, arrived in Mogadishu on Wednesday, sparking rumours that Aweys and Shabab leaders were leading the fighting against the Somali and Ethiopian troops. Most of the leadership of the Council of Islamic Courts has either fled the country, or been in hiding since Ethiopia intervened in December to prop up the Government.

The Shabab, which the United States accuses of having ties to Al-Qaeda, have taken credit for a string of suicide bombings against Ethiopian troops.

The shell that hit the children's hospital on Wednesday exploded in a ward housing between 20 and 30 wounded adults, said Wilhelm Huber, regional director for the SOS Children's Villages. The children had been evacuated earlier because shells were hitting the compound, Mr. Huber said.

— AP

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