Somali Capital

Artillery and explosions rocked the Somali capital for the sixth day Wednesday, despite an appeal by Muslim authorities for an end to "blind shelling" by all sides. Eight people were killed and 15 wounded in fighting in southern Mogadishu between forces loyal to faction leader Hussein Mohammed Aidid and those of his rivals, Osman Hassan Ali and Musa Sudi Yalahow. At least 107 people have died and 900 have been wounded since Friday in the worst fighting in a year.

An Islamist group says an American militant of Somali origin carried out a suicide bombing against an African Union base on Saturday, killing at least 10 people in Mogadishu, and it released a suicide message that it says he recorded before the attack. Abdisalan Hussein Ali, 22, was among about 20 young Somali Americans from Minneapolis allegedly recruited since 2007 by the Shabab, a rebel group, to fight in Somalia. In an audio clip aired Sunday on a Somali radio station associated with the Shabab, a voice attributed to Ali said in English that jihad, or holy war, was the most important objective for Muslims and urged them not to "just chill out all day. " "It is not important that you become a doctor or you become some sort of engineer.

In the two years since his high school was shelled, gutted, looted and transformed into part of the ravaged Somali capital's lethal Green Line, Hassan Aden has lived an animal's life--running from armed gangs, hiding in refugee camps, eating only when fed by relief agencies.

The Shabab militant Islamic group retreated early Saturday from war-battered Mogadishu, leaving residents to awaken to hushed streets as the government claimed victory against extremist forces that had tormented the Somali capital for years. It was not clear whether the move signaled a lasting withdrawal by the Al Qaeda-linked group or was a tactical shift in preparation for a counterattack. The rebels have been pounded in recent months by 9,000 government-backed African Union soldiers and U.S. drone strikes that have targeted Shabab commanders.

Formalizing the first major crack in the U.N. military coalition struggling to pacify and rebuild Somalia, the commander of Italy's troops announced Friday that his soldiers will withdraw from the embattled Somali capital to demonstrate Rome's sharp disagreement with what it considers strong-arm tactics against supporters of Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid. Gen. Bruno Loi's statement that his troops would redeploy in the Somali countryside on Sept.

An outbreak of cholera had claimed at least 19 lives here in the Somali capital in two days, a senior health official said Wednesday. Dr. Osman Mohamud Dufle, coordinator of the Joint Health Authority in the divided city, said that 15 of the victims had died Monday and the others Tuesday. Dufle said the number of fatalities could be higher because some victims had died at home and, as Muslims, were buried within 24 hours of death.

The expanding U.S.-led military operation to free Somalia from war and starvation prepared Monday for its first foray into the heart of the famine-struck nation as deepening debate about the troops' precise role here spread confusion and anxiety on the capital's streets. In Washington, President Bush told top military leaders that their mission in Somalia has not changed, despite suggestions by U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali that U.S.

Deep in the tangled bush of rural Somalia, the tanned airmen of Red Horse company, guarded by an Army Special Forces unit, were hard at work Saturday. Maj. Ed Henson, the 37-year-old Air Force company leader, was crouched on an abandoned and long-forgotten 10,000-foot runway, testing its strength. One of his men, wearing a T-shirt and perched on a tractor, was carving wing-tip room from the thorny brush.

Somalis began unloading more than 5,000 tons of wheat from a U.N. vessel docked at Mogadishu's newly reopened port, a U.N. official said. The port is crucial to an international relief operation aimed at feeding the malnourished population of the Somali capital, where hundreds of people have died of starvation.

Two French security advisors on a mission to train Somali forces were kidnapped at a hotel where they had checked in as journalists, officials and witnesses said. The French Foreign Ministry released a statement saying the men were security consultants. No claim of responsibility or demand for a ransom was reported from the kidnappers. Foreigners rarely go to Mogadishu, the Somali capital, which is among the most dangerous cities in the world, and when they do, they travel only in convoys with armed guards.

Al Qaeda's powerful branch in Yemen has provided weapons, fighters and training with explosives over the last year to a militant Islamic group battling for power in Somalia, according to newly developed American intelligence, raising concerns of a widening alliance of terrorist groups. Leaders of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula in Yemen also have urged members of the hard-line Shabab militia to attack targets outside Africa for the first time, said U.S. officials who were briefed on the intelligence.

Insurgents in army uniforms stormed a hotel in the Somali capital Tuesday, killing at least 31 people, including six lawmakers, in an hourlong blaze of gunfire, explosions and smoke. The Shabab movement, an Islamic militant group fighting the frail internationally backed government of Somalia for years, claimed responsibility for the attack. Statements from the group cited by news organizations indicated that the assault was part of a "massive war" it declared Monday against the Somali government and the United Nations-backed peacekeeping force propping it up. Perpetually in crisis, the violent Horn of Africa country of Somalia has been a source of instability since the early 1990s.

European Union naval forces captured seven Somali pirates after they tried to take over a French fishing vessel, officials said. Pirates fired on the fishing boat about 350 miles east of the Somali capital, Mogadishu, on Tuesday, said Cmdr. John Harbour of the European Union Naval Force. French military personnel aboard the trawler returned fire, a military spokesman said. It didn't appear that any of the shots hit the pirates, he said. A German warship was dispatched to the scene, and seven pirates were detained.

Kidnapers released an Associated Press correspondent 20 days after seizing her from a car in the Somali capital, Mogadishu. Tina Susman, 35, was in good health. News of the June 18 kidnaping had been withheld by news organizations to facilitate attempts to secure her release. Her abductors initially demanded $300,000, then lower amounts, but AP said no ransom was paid. Susman's captors allowed her to receive food, books and bottled water, and to send and receive written messages.