Muqdisho, Arbaco, July 02 2008 SMC“     

At least 53 people were killed in Somalia when Islamist insurgents clashed with Ethiopian troops and Ugandan peacekeepers in separate battles, a human rights group said on Wednesday.

The latest flare-up in the 18-month-old insurgency came a week before a U.N.-mediated ceasefire between an Islamist faction and the interim Somali government is to take effect.

The interim government and Ethiopia both declined comment on the clashes or any casualties.

Hardline Islamists have been waging an almost daily Iraq-style insurgency against the interim government and its Ethiopian backers since they were ousted from Mogadishu and most of southern Somalia in 2007.

"A total of 47 people died yesterday in central Somalia and in the capital Mogadishu last night,"

Ahmed Sudan, chairman of the Mogadishu-based Elman Peace and Human Rights organisation, told Reuters 47 people were killed on Tuesday and overnight in central Somalia and Mogadishu.

He said six more had since died of their wounds.

Sudan said 11 civilians were killed when Islamists ambushed Ethiopian troops and Ugandan peacekeepers in the capital Mogadishu overnight, while dozens of others were wounded.

Another 36 people, including civilians and insurgents, were killed when rebels struck an Ethiopian troop convoy in Mataban, 410 km (255 miles) north of the Somali capital Mogadishu.

Among the dead on Tuesday were Moalim Farhan, commander of the militant group that attacked the convoy, and Abdullahi Ali Farah, also known as Sheikh Aspro, a spokesman for the insurgents told the media.

Aspro is deputy to hardline Islamist Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who is on U.S. and U.N. lists of al Qaeda associates.

"We buried 25 civilians," an elder from Mataban said. "We do not know the number of Ethiopians killed."

Somaliweyn Media Center “SMC”

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Somaliweyn Media Center (SMC)
Muqdisho Somalia

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