Casualties Mount as Fighting Continues in Somali Capital

Artillery and explosions rocked the Somali capital for the sixth day Wednesday, despite an appeal by Muslim authorities for an end to “blind shelling” by all sides.

Eight people were killed and 15 wounded in fighting in southern Mogadishu between forces loyal to faction leader Hussein Mohammed Aidid and those of his rivals, Osman Hassan Ali and Musa Sudi Yalahow. At least 107 people have died and 900 have been wounded since Friday in the worst fighting in a year.

But aid workers said they feared the death toll could be higher.

“Some 900 people have been brought to hospitals with wounds since Friday, so we would expect the death toll to be about one-third of the wounded . . . about 300,” an aid official said.

Aid workers said fighters frequently do not publicize casualties because they fear the information would be useful to enemies.

The rival factions do not take the dead to hospitals, and bodies are often buried secretly by fellow fighters, the workers said.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said Tuesday that 900 people had been admitted to seven hospitals and medical centers in the city since Friday. More than 70 people died of their wounds while undergoing treatment, they said.

“We are appalled by the apparently high number of civilian casualties . . . a result of indiscriminate firing into places like markets where ordinary people gather,” said Fred Grimm, a Red Cross spokesman.

Both of Aidid’s rivals are allied with Ali Mahdi Mohamed, who controls the northern half of Mogadishu. Wednesday’s fighting centered on the Medina and Bosnia neighborhoods in southern Mogadishu.

Medina, which lies on the so-called green line dividing Mogadishu, is surrounded by Aidid’s forces, who have launched several unsuccessful attempts to dislodge rival militiamen.

Somalia has had no functioning central government since the 1991 ouster of the late dictator Mohamed Siad Barre by a united opposition front. But over the years, the faction leaders split over leadership wrangles.