07/08/08 (B459-B) PRESS TV / Les troupes éthiopiennes ont capturé et détiennent 150 jeunes somaliens dans un lieu inconnu. / Ethiopian troops detain 150 Somali youths (En Anglais – Info lecteur)

Ethiopian troops have captured scores of civilians in Somalia’s central region of Hiiran, transferring them to an unknown location.

According to Press TV’s Somali correspondent, Ethiopian soldiers have detained more than 150 Somali youths since last night.

The recent arrests come as the fate of the civilians taken into custody by Ethiopian soldiers in previous months remains uncertain.

Ethiopian troops have fired 47 mortars into the Balet Weyn town in Hiiran region this week, killing civilians and damaging residential and business areas.

Hundreds of civilians have fled the area and those who have stayed suffer from food and water shortages.

Somalia has been without an effective central government since President Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. In 2006, US-backed Ethiopian troops invaded the country in an attempt to back Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government (TFG).

Thousands of civilians have been killed and displaced as a result of the continuous violence in the war-torn country.