Category: Mogadishu

Mogadishu: Plane crashes on third day of Mogadishu fighting 320 Reads

Friday, March 23, 2007 - 08:51 PM

Fri Mar 23, 2007 10:41 PM IST

By Sahal Abdulle

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - A plane carrying 11 people aiding African peacekeepers in Mogadishu burst into flames and crashed on Friday during a third day of fighting in an insurgency many fear could plunge Somalia back into civil war.

Local private radio Shabelle said the plane, a Russian-made Ilyushin used in the region to transport both cargo and troops, was hit by a missile as it took off from Mogadishu.

"I saw with my eyes when the plane, which was flying low-level, was hit by a rocket and then fell to the ground," Shabelle reporter Maryan Hashi said.

But witnesses could not confirm that.

"I saw the plane on fire ... One of the wings exploded in the air ... When it hit the ground, another explosion occurred," Hassan Mahamud Jama, a resident of the area, told Reuters.

Columns of smoke billowed up from the inaccessible, wooded area in the outskirts of north Mogadishu where the plane came down, said a Reuters reporter near the scene.

Government and AU sources told Reuters the plane was an Ilyushin carrying technicians who had been working on another damaged plane used by the peace mission.

AU mission spokesman Captain Paddy Ankunda said 11 people were on board, believed to be from Russia or Belarus, but it was too early to tell the cause of the crash.

Insurgents believed to be a mixture of militant Islamists and disgruntled clan militia are striking daily against the government, their Ethiopian military allies, and a contingent of 1,200 Ugandan soldiers in the vanguard of the AU force.

WORSE TO COME?

During the morning, witnesses heard shelling and cannon fire near a former defence headquarters, the scene of repeated fighting since Wednesday.

Around 20 people have been killed and hundreds more wounded this week in the bloodiest clashes since the government and Ethiopian troops seized the city from rival Islamists three months ago after a two-week war.

Thousands of residents have fled the almost daily guerrilla attacks aimed at a government trying to restore central rule to Somalia after 16 years of lawlessness.

Residents say the latest violence coincides with a government-led disarmament drive which has provoked particular resistance from Mogadishu's dominant Hawiye clan.

President Abdullahi Yusuf's government says it wants to secure the gun-infested city before a reconciliation conference scheduled for April 16.

Many Hawiye regard the operation as an attempt by Yusuf, from the rival Darod clan, to marginalise them.

Residents and officials fear the death toll will rise from this week's fighting.

"The dead are not making it to hospitals and it is too dangerous for our staff to be out on the streets, so there is no way to know yet," said Pascal Hundt of the International Committee of the Red Cross.

"By working day and night, the doctors and nurses there have been able to keep treating the wounded. But we are very concerned about the situation," he said from Nairobi.

Analysts say there may be worse violence to come with disgruntled factions likely to exploit popular anger at any forced disarmament and at foreign troops.

The Red Cross estimated 300 were injured this week.

"This is a tragic situation," said U.N. humanitarian coordinator for Somalia Eric Laroche.

"Tens of thousands of people are fleeing Mogadishu and civilian casualties are mounting daily."

(Additional reporting by Daniel Wallis in Nairobi)

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