27/08/07 (B410) Shabelle NetWork / Des attaques à la grenade, par des inconnus armés, visent les troupes éhiopiennes / Somalia: Grenade Blasts Target Ethiopian Soldiers in Mogadishu (En Anglais – info lecteur)
Unknown gunmen carried out an ambush attack on an Ethiopian convoy around Suqa Holaha neighborhood in north of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, in early Saturday.
Witnesses said at least three grenade explosions targeted the Ethiopian forces that left former Maslah military camp for another nearby Ethiopian base in the area.
The first grenade hurled by unknown gunmen hit somewhere closer to the Ethiopian military vehicles as they were exiting from Maslah compound. The troops opened fire at every direction, while two other grenades were hurled at them before they made their way in to former Somalia’s pasta plant where the Ethiopians are based, witnesses said.
A large number of Ethiopian forces backed by tanks and other armored vehicles came out, sealing off the whole area and searching houses near by for the suspected Islamist insurgents.
The commuter buses that used the main road of Suqa Holaha had to pass through the roads of vicinity to ferry passengers to Bakara, Mogadishu’s largest open-air market where most of the capital’s population goes for work to earn their daily bread.
No casualties have been reported.
Meanwhile hundreds of residents in north of the capital fled during July and August after repeated gun battles and bomb attacks that rage between Ethiopian backed Somali troops and suspected Islamist-led insurgents forced people to leave.
The government forces have also been conducting weapons and insurgents search operation there despite the nightly attacks on them.
Government officials said the search operation will continue, stating that they seized a large amount of weapons.