Somali govn't says army foils attack on base in Mogadishu - World News sina.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from sina.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
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MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Somali government troops and opposition supporters - including some soldiers - exchanged gunfire in Mogadishu on Friday in street clashes that broke out during a protest march over delayed elections.
Demonstrators said they had been attacked first by the government forces. Residents reported sporadic shooting and said rocket-propelled grenades had also been fired.
The violence, which followed fighting overnight, subsided by Friday afternoon.
But it fueled concern that the military could split along clan lines. It could also strengthen an al Qaeda-linked insurgency, especially as hundreds of U.S. troops have just pulled out of Somalia.
Heavy gunfire was heard on Friday in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, after security forces sealed off several streets to prevent protests called by the opposition over delayed elections. As a result, a gunbattle erupted in central Mogadishu hours after fighters loyal to the government and to the political opposition exchanged gunfire, Reuters reported. Between […].
The spillover of political rivalries into open conflict will dismay Somalia’s allies and play into the hands of the al-Qaeda-linked al Shabaab insurgency