18/10/08 (B470) Shabelle : Le Gouvernement somalien ordonne à ses troupes de cesser le pillonage des zones habitées par les populations civiles, mais on ne sait si ces ordres seront effectivement suivis. // Somali government orders troops to stop shelling (En Anglais – Info lecteur)

Somalia’s army says that its forces have orders to open fire if the insurgents launch another raid across their bases not artillery shells.

Speaking to Shabelle radio the spokesman of Somali military forces Dahir Mohamed Hersi has announced that they (troops) will not shell the populated areas with heavy shells, raising the stakes in a dispute over how to tackle the supplementary deadly shelling on the civilian areas including the main Bakara market where hundreds died as the result of the reprisal shells fired by Ethiopian and Somali troops.

“The troops will use head to head battles but will bring to an end the deadly shells” Dahir said.

Hersi said that those remarks have been announced by the commander of Somalia’s national forces, similarly it’s yet unknown the motive coincided the announcement of the mortar shell’s stopping.

Mortar Shells rocked Mogadishu, overwhelming the hospitals with casualties, as Ethiopian and Somali troops are fighting Islamist rebels.

Scores of civilians were killed and hundreds wounded in what the International Committee of the Red Cross says is the worst for more than 18 years.

« Whoever is doing this is not human, » Salado Yebarow, who fled from her home in Howlwadaag as she lives in Elasha biyaha, said by telephone. « They have clearly never had a grandmother or children to think about. »

Hospitals struggled to cope with injured civilians, although most victims could not reach any kind of help because of the continuing attacks. Doctors were trapped by the battles and perilous roadblocks.

At the city’s main Madina Hospital, many patients lay on thin mattresses in the yard. Others wailed inside the packed wards.

It’s yet unknown how these remarks from the government will take effect.