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Showing posts from August 15, 2008

The Daily Star - Politics - Ethiopian troops kill five civilians in Somali bus

The Daily Star - Politics - Ethiopian troops kill five civilians in Somali bus MOGADISHU: Ethiopian forces killed five Somali civilians and wounded seven others when they opened fire on a minibus south of Mogadishu, witnesses and elders told AFP Thursday. The Ethiopian troops had earlier been attacked by Islamist insurgents and reputedly mistook the minibus - travelling south from Mogadishu to Wanlaweyn - as hostile, the witnesses said. "They were ambushed by insurgents hours before they opened fire on the bus. The bodies of five civilians killed in the incident were brought to Wanlaweyn," local elder Adan Nur Jisow said. Witnesses said that the driver survived but seven others were wounded. "The driver told us that the Ethiopian forces sprayed gunfire on the minibus ... It was dark and maybe they could not identify whether they were insurgents or civilians," resident Mohammad Sheikh Yusuf said.