NAIROBI, 12 May (IRIN) - Heavy fighting
broke out in the Somali capital Mogadishu, on Friday, around 16:00 local
time, after faction leader Husayn Muhammad Aydid entered the former port.
A battle between the opposition leader and militia guarding the port for
the Transitional National Government (TNG) escalated into the bloodiest
fighting experienced in Mogadishu over the last few years, and constitutes
the biggest challenge yet to the interim government. After a brief lull,
and a temporary ceasefire on Friday night, full-scale fighting resumed
on Saturday morning, until about 10:00 local time. Hospital officials said
at least 26 people had died in the fighting by Saturday morning and 50
wounded, new agencies said.
"There is still the odd round of
firing, but now it has gone quiet," a Mogadishu resident told IRIN
at 13:00 local time on Saturday.
The battle started on Friday after Aydid entered the port with a small number of heavily armed "technicals" - trucks or jeeps mounted with machine guns - and was confronted by members of the Habir Gedir-Suleiman sub-clan, who are allied to the TNG and guard the port.
Heavy machine guns and mortars were used by both sides in the battle, which took place around the port, and later from the southern part of the city, where Aydid is headquartered in the former presidential house, Villa Somalia. Aydid is one of the leaders of an opposition group, the Somali Restoration and Reconciliation Council (SRRC), recently formed during talks held in neighbouring Ethiopia. The SRRC have said they want to bring in a "truly representative authority." In a statement issued on 12 May, the SRRC said the battle was an attempt by the TNG to arrest "one of the top SRRC leadership... co-chairman Husayn Aydid."
Aydid was trapped at the port through Friday night while clan elders and politicians negotiated. Militia from Aydid's Habir Gedir-Sa'ad sub-clan reinforced the opposition leader, who was effectively under siege at the port by forces allied to the TNG. According to local and political sources, attempts were made to stop the battle crystallising along clan lines. "People are very nervous of clan warfare... it reminds them of the old days," humanitarian sources in Mogadishu told IRIN. However, sources in Mogadishu told IRIN that the Sa'ad sub-clan of Habir Gedir had overwhelmingly allied with Aydid, with the exception of Abdi Hasan Awale Qaybdid, TNG Mogadishu police chief, and a few others. One of those allied to Aydid was TNG member of parliament, Ahmed Duale Haaf, a Sa'ad. Militia loyal to faction leader Osman Ato also sent reinforcements to the port to support Aydid.
Mogadishu sources said militia allied to Aydid attempted on Saturday morning to broaden the arena of fighting, with mortar rounds fired from Villa Somalia direction into the main Bakara Market, southern Mogadishu.
At 22:00 local Friday night, the Minister of the Interior, Dahir Sheikh Muhammad Nur went on local radio to try and calm the situation, and said he was prepared to go to the port if necessary to get Aydid out. But the fighting - which resumed at about 03:00 local time early Saturday morning - did not ease until after reinforced militia allied to Aydid managed to break through into the port and give him safe passage out at about 08:00 local time. "Fighting calmed down once Aydid was out. Getting Aydid out of the port was the real military incentive," a Mogadishu source told IRIN.
Interim President Abdiqassim Salad Hassan has been holding meetings with his ministers and elders at his residence since the outbreak of the fighting. "His major challenge is to stop it taking clan lines," a senior TNG source told IRIN. One Mogadishu observer told IRIN that the TNG and the president had pursued a "keep out" policy to avoid all-out clan warfare - "the mood of the TNG reflected the mood of people in Mogadishu." However, an angry TNG supporter told IRIN from Mogadishu that the government had made a big mistake by initially just treating the incident at the port as "another clan clash."
"There is no denying that this is a serious blow for the TNG," said one supporter. The conflict broke out the day after Prime Minister Ali Khalif Galayhd left with a high-level delegation to hold talks with representatives from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank in Nairobi, Kenya.
Details of why Aydid went to the port, and how the conflict erupted, are sketchy. However, sources close the interim government said that Aydid appeared to have been confident of a good reception by the Habir Gedir-Sulayman militia leader at the port, but that the rest of the Sulayman militia there had responded with suspicion and hostility. "When Aydid initially moved into the port, it was more like an arrival than a confrontation," the source said.
As the fighting escalated, Aydid was reinforced by militia from his Habir Gedir Sa'ad sub-clan, including those from another opposition leader, Osman Ato, and a prominent businessman, Abdulrashid Shire Ilqeyte [associated with the recent importation of fake currency to Mogadishu]. Somali political sources said much of the support given to Aydid during the conflict was from TNG member, Ahmed Duale Haaf.
As from Saturday midday, local time, Aydid was back in Villa Somalia, local Mogadishu sources said. Mogadishu residents said Aydid's forces had managed to release prisoners from the main jail adjacent to the port, and had looted port stores belonging to a pro-TNG businessman Muhammad Deylaf. According to a variety of sources, two of Aydid's colonels have been reported as having been killed in the battle, Colonel Farah Gubadley, and Colonel Bashi [no other name given].
Nairobi, 12 May 2001
[ENDS]
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