Gun Battle In Somali Capital

Somali troops and allied Ethiopian soldiers conducted house-to-house searches early Monday, pursuing gunmen who carried out an attack in the northeastern part of the city, residents said.

Four rocket propelled grenades were fired at a convoy of Ethiopian and government troops Sunday night in Hurwa district, destroying one military vehicle and triggering a 30-minute gun battle, residents said.

"Residents in Hurwa district have stopped sending their children to school as businesses and schools were closed," said Shine Moalim Hussein, a resident in the district. "Ethiopians and Somali troops are carrying out house-to-house searches."

"I have seen one Ethiopian military vehicle burning after it was hit by an RPG," said Shine Moalim Hussein, who lives near the area of the attack. "When the exchange of gunfire started at around 11 p.m., I quickly closed my small kiosk and ran for my life."

No official casualty figures were available from the attack, but CBS News reporter Katherine Arms reports people were killed on both sides.

Meanwhile, Kenyan police arrested a top leader in Somalia's Islamic militant movement Monday, a Kenyan security official said.

The leader, whose exact identity was not completely clear, was arrested at midmorning at a refugee camp near the Kenyan border with Somalia, the official said, quoting from a police report. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter.

The Somali government, with critical help from Ethiopia's military, last month drove out an Islamic militia that had controlled much of southern Somalia since the summer. But sporadic fighting continues.

Government troops and allied Ethiopian soldiers were searching house-to-house for the assailants after Sunday's attack.

Arms reports the Ethiopian government has said it hopes to be out of Somalia soon, but Somalia's interim government says it still needs the foreign forces to back up its own troops.

On Monday, President Abdullahi Yusuf appointed a mayor and administration for the capital, Mogadishu. This is a measure that African, European and U.S. diplomats, known as the International Contact Group on Somalia, had said earlier this month would be an important step for the government to establish its authority.

On Sunday, an African Union delegation was in the Somali capital to discuss the deployment of international peacekeepers, and the government expanded a house-to-house search for weapons in a one of the world's most dangerous and heavily armed cities.

Muhammad Ali Foum, the AU's special representative for Somalia, said nine delegates arrived for meetings with the government.

"A team has gone to take a look and to get information that will help us devise a plan for peacekeepers," Foum said Sunday.

Yusuf needs to establish enough calm to allow international peacekeepers to deploy in Somalia to protect his government until it can form an effective police force and army.

The United States, the United Nations and the AU all want to deploy African peacekeepers to stop Somalia from returning to clan-based violence and anarchy.
But so far, few African governments have responded to the call for an 8,000-strong peacekeeping force. Uganda has indicated it is willing to send 1,500 peacekeepers as part of a wider mission. Ghana has said it might consider a request for only about a dozen officers to serve as observers or to form a technical support team.

The only other nations possibly willing and able are South Africa, Nigeria, Benin and perhaps Senegal. But all of those countries already provide peacekeepers to operations around the world, and South Africa and Nigeria especially are spread thin at the moment. And no country will send peacekeepers into Somalia if there is fighting.

A U.N. peacekeeping operation in Somalia in the 1990s saw clashes between foreign troops and Somali warlords' fighters, including the notorious downings of two U.S. military Black Hawk helicopters in 1993. The debacle led to the U.S. withdrawal from Somalia in 1994, and that was followed a year later by the departure of U.N. peacekeepers.

The U.S. military's first overt action back inside Somalia came last week, as American aircraft conducted several days of bombing raids in the southern tip of the country - targeting al Qaeda militants, according to the U.S. and Somali governments.

Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi condemned European criticism of last week's U.S. airstrike in Somalia, saying such strikes were necessary to fight terrorism, according to an interview published Monday.

The air assault last Monday was criticized internationally, with the African Union, European Union and United Nations among those expressing concern about future prospects for peace in Somalia and about civilians possibly caught in the crossfire.

"European countries, and Italy in particular, should better understand reality in Somalia," Gedi said in an interview with Rome daily La Repubblica. "Instead, what do they do? They condemn the American intervention in the south without evaluating the impact it could have on our country's future and that of the entire region."

The AU visit comes as Somali troops and allied Ethiopian soldiers struggle to disarm Mogadishu residents reluctant to give up their guns after years of fending for themselves in the chaos.

Hassan Mohamoud said troops entered his house early Sunday and took his Kalashnikov assault rifle.

"I bought the gun about 10 years ago in order to safeguard myself and my family," he said. "But now I worry about whether the government will take responsibility for our safety."

Government spokesman Abdirahman Dinari said the search was taking place in several neighborhoods but he refused to comment on the number of weapons seized, saying it was a military secret.

Also Sunday, gunmen raided a police station in northeast Mogadishu, killing a soldier and wounding a civilian, according to Adbi Haji Barale, the district police commissioner. It was not clear whether the soldier was Somali or Ethiopian.

On Saturday, Somalia's acting parliament voted to allow the U.N.-backed government to impose martial law for up to three months in this Horn of Africa nation of 7 million people. Dinari said he did not know when Yusuf would sign a decree to impose martial law.