Press TV
Monday, April 02, 2007
For the first time in four days the sound of heavy shelling could not be heard throughout the city early Monday morning.
Witnesses say that during the past four days several hundred residents and fighters have lost their lives.
The Red Cross has described the violence as the worst seen in the capital for 15 years.
Ethiopia claims that its troops have killed 200 "armed remnants" of the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC), which controlled the city until last December.
Witnesses have accused the Ethiopians of shelling areas indiscriminately and Red Cross spokesman Peram Yazdi has said there have been many civilian casualties, with at least 400 taken to hospital.
Human Rights Watch (HRW) said dozens of people fleeing the Somali conflict had been stopped at the Kenyan border, handed to the U.S. for interrogation, repatriated to Somalia and then passed on to Ethiopia, where they had "effectively disappeared".
Already, nearly 60,000 people have left Mogadishu in the past two months, more than 12,000 in the past week.
Source: Press TV, Apr 02, 2007