While the attention of most of the world's media is focused on Iraq, Afghanistan and the return of military dictatorship to Pakistan, the fighting in Somalia rages on :
At least 80 Somalis have been killed in heavy fighting in Mogadishu within the past 48 hours, witnesses and doctors said Saturday, as residents continued to flee the beleaguered Somali capital.A day after heavy shelling and gunfire claimed over 50 lives, residents said new bodies were discovered on Saturday morning in southern Mogadishu, where Ethiopian troops backing the shaky Somali government have been fighting Islamic insurgents for two days.
The fighting is some of the heaviest the war-ravaged city has seen since April. Hospitals are overflowing with patients and doctors say they lack medicine, beds and space for the wounded.
The fighting was sparked when Ethiopian troops began patrols two days ago in a southern Mogadishu neighborhood seen as a hotbed of support for the Islamic insurgents. Two Ethiopians were killed, and the mutilated body of one of the soldiers was dragged though the streets by protesting women and children. The Ethiopians subsequently fired tank shells into a civilian market.
December 2006 : Ethiopia's Prime Minister Declares War On Somali Islamists - Ethiopian Jets Strike Targets Inside Somalia
January 2007 : US Air Strikes Kill Dozens In Somalia - US Admits It Missed Most Of Its Insurgent Targets - Somali Warlords Set To Rule Again
March 2007 : US Backed Ethiopian Removal Of Islamic Courts From Power Sees Return Of Islamist Insurgency - Soldiers Bodies Burned In The Streets Of Capital
April 2, 2007 : Islamist Morars Rain Down On Mogadishu - Hundreds Killed, Thousands Flee - Combined Military Forces Of Ethiopian And Somali Governments Battle Insurgents
April 25, 2007 : Car Bombs Rock Somali Capital - War Spreads Through Ethiopia, Somalia And Eritrea
June 2007 : Mogadishu Becomes More Like Baghdad By The Day - Somalis Want To See Return Of Islamic Courts To Drive Out Ethiopian Troops And Warlords
