Agencies/Mogadishu


Mourners carry the remains of a man killed during mortar shelling in Hawlwadag Refugee camp near Somalia’s presidential palace
Ethiopian forces yesterday seized the main base of the Al Qaeda-linked Shebaab insurgents in central Somalia, the latest stronghold the extremists have lost in recent months, witnesses said.
Ethiopian troops and fighters from the pro-government militia Ahlu Sunna Wal Jamaa seized El Bur town, some 150km south of the Ethiopian border, after a brief firefight.
“Ethiopian troops have taken positions inside and outside the town, but most of the residents fled before they arrived,” said Abdukadir Sahal, a resident.
The loss of the town tightens the net on the hardline Shebaab, who are facing attacks on multiple fronts by regional armies.
“There was brief exchange of gunfire on the outskirts of town but Shebaab fled... there are Ethiopian troops with armoured trucks, pulling heavy artillery weapons,” Sahal added.
“There was no fighting inside El Bur, but Shebaab fighters are not far away,” said Ahmednur Fodade, another resident.
Ethiopian soldiers in battle trucks began the advance on El Bur at the weekend, bolstering allied fighters from Ahlu Sunna at the central Somali town of Dhusamareb, before pushing on some 100km to the south.
El Bur is the fourth Shebaab stronghold to be seized by the Ethiopian forces, who deployed into lawless Somalia in November, after Kenya also sent troops into southern Somalia to battle the ruthless militia.
The Shebaab abandoned bases in the anarchic capital Mogadishu in August after their four-year bloody insurgency failed to topple the Western-backed Somali government, protected by a contingent of African Union troops.
The AU force is currently made up of some 10,000 soldiers from Burundi, Djibouti and Uganda, while Kenyan troops are due to integrate into the force.
However, while the Shebaab have lost key towns recently, they still remain a serious threat, especially as they continue a bloody campaign of suicide and mortar attacks.
Shebaab spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage, speaking before the fall of El Bur, said defiantly that the insurgents would not give up their fight.
“The mujahedeen fighters will not be deterred from implementing Shariah in Somalia and to defeat the Christian invaders - we will continue fighting and the enemy will be defeated,” said Rage.
Ethiopia’s latest incursion is the second in five years. They toppled an Islamist movement after deploying in 2006, but they withdrew in 2009 after the group’s hardline fighters - the Shebaab - mounted a bruising guerrilla war.
Separately, two people were killed and 8 others wounded after mortar rounds fired by Shebaab rebels towards the presidential palace landed on a nearby camp for the internally displaced, witnesses and officials said yesterday.
Paddy Ankunda, spokesman for the African Union force known as AMISOM, said some mortars hit a camp for Somalis displaced by war and famine about 300 metres from the presidential palace.
Ismail Nur, a resident of the camp, said one mortar killed two members of a single family.
“A mortar landed on our camp - a father and his son died. Eight others including three women were injured,” said Nur, who is a nephew to the dead father.
Shebaab said they fired mortars at the heavily protected presidential compound, their third attempt to strike at the heart of the government in a fortnight.