Battle of Mogadishu (March–April 2007)

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For other battles that occurred in Mogadishu, see Battle of Mogadishu.

Battle of Mogadishu (2007)

Part of the War and Insurgency in Somalia

Mogadishu skyline during the fighting in March 2007

Date	March 21 - April 26, 2007
Location	Mogadishu
Result	Tactical Ethiopian/TFG victory, insurgency not quelled

Belligerents

Popular Resistance Movement (PRM)

Hawiye clan militiamen

Ethiopia

Transitional Federal Government
Uganda AMISOM

Casualties and losses

427 killed and 150 captured^[1]^[2]

Undisclosed; at least
11 TFG soldiers killed
37 Ethiopian soldiers killed
68 Ethiopian soldiers wounded^[3]^[4]^[5]^[6]^[7]
1 Ugandan soldier killed^[8]
1 Mil Mi-24 helicopter gunship shot down
2 tanks damaged

Civilian casualties:
1,176 Somali civilians killed (Hawiye claim)^[9]

4,600 Somali civilians wounded [1][2]
11 Belarusian civilians killed

War in Somalia (2006–present)

Baidoa – Bandiradley – Beledweyne – Jowhar – Mogadishu (fall) – Jilib – Kismayo – Ras Kamboni – 1st Mogadishu – Bargal – 2nd Mogadishu – 3rd Mogadishu Chronology: 2006 2007 2008

The Battle of Mogadishu began on March 21, 2007 in the Shirkole area of Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia. Somali interim government forces and Ethiopian troops came under attack as they entered an insurgent area of central Mogadishu before dawn. They were met by hundreds of masked insurgents, the first face-to-face confrontation between the two sides since January 2007.

Fighting quickly escalated the following days with Hawiye clan militants joining the Islamists in the fight. As Ethiopians brought reinforcements including heavy weapons, insurgent areas of the city were heavily shelled. On April 26, 2007 the battle was over and claimed as a victory for the Ethiopian and Somali forces. At least one thousand people died in the fighting.

1 Background
2 The battle
3 Aftermath
- 3.1 Casualties
- 3.2 Displacement
4 Human rights abuses and crimes
5 External links
6 See also
7 References

[edit] Background

Since January 2007, residents of Mogadishu have been gripped by a campaign of violence that killed and injured hundreds of civilians, provoked the largest and most rapid displacement of a civilian population for many years: Following the establishment of Ethiopian and TFG troops in Mogadishu in January 2007, residents of Mogadishu witnessed a steady spiral of attacks by insurgent forces aimed at Ethiopian and TFG military forces and TFG officials. Increasingly, Ethiopian forces launched mortars, rockets, and artillery fire in response.

[edit] The battle

[edit] 1st round of fighting

A failed March 21 and 22 disarmament operation by the TFG resulted in the capture of TFG troops and—in scenes evocative of the deaths of US soldiers in 1993—the mutilation of their bodies in Mogadishu’s streets.

The fighting started when pro-government forces tried to take control of strongholds of the Hawiye clan, whose leaders oppose the presence of Ethiopian forces. Shooting and mortar fire started and quickly spread to other parts of the city. Crowds dragged and burnt two government soldiers killed in the streets of Mogadishu. A local businessman also reported that several minibuses evacuated insurgent casualties, but he was unable to say if they were dead or wounded.

The death toll of this deadly street violence in Mogadishu rose up to at least 22 people with more than 80 injured, some of them seriously, medical sources said. ^[3] A group called the Popular Resistance Movement in the Land of the Two Migrations claimed they had been the target of the offensive that began in Shirkole. The group said in a statement posted on the website of the Islamic Courts Union that it had repulsed the attacks and an unspecified number of government soldiers had surrendered to them.

[edit] Cargo plane shotdown

Main article: 2007 Mogadishu TransAVIAexport Airlines Il-76 crash

On March 23, 2007, a TransAVIAexport Airlines Ilyushin Il-76 airplane crashed in Mogadishu. The plane is thought to have been shot down. The were 11 people on board, all but one Belarusian crew members died in the crash. The other remaining survivors was found wandering around the crash site and later died in the hospital,

[edit] 1st ceasefire

On March 24, the traditional elders of the Somali’s powerful Hawiye tribe and the Ethiopian top military officials reached a ceasefire deal while the Ethiopians promised to start mediating between the government and Hawiye clans. [3] However, the second round of meeting by the Ethiopian military officials and elders of the Hawiye tribe in Mogadishu has ended in failure after the Ethiopians informed the Hawiye men that they would carry out house to house search operations in the capital.

The meeting which lasted for several hours ended in deadlock after the Ethiopian officials told the elders that they could not accept what is going on in Mogadishu. The spokesman for Hawiye tribe, Ahmed Dirie, told Shabelle Media that the Ethiopians want to launch massive military operation in the capital searching for weapons and terrorists. [4]

[edit] 2nd round of fighting

Heavy gun battles had restarted on March 29 as the Ethiopian forces supported by tanks captured new areas in Mogadishu.

The battles began around 5:30 am local time in two directions of the capital. Reports said that two tanks belonging to the Ethiopian forces were damaged in the clashes raging in Mogadishu.

Map of Somalia with Mogadishu

Witnesses that one of the Ethiopian tanks was damaged on the industrial road in the capital where the fighting is still continuing while another one damaged in the frontline area. The Ethiopians were reported to have towed the damaged tanks. 11 people, mostly civilians have been killed by stray bullets. Two Ethiopian helicopter gunships started bombardments on the rebel positions in the capital. [5]

Somalinet reported that at least 15 Ethiopian military personnel have been killed and others more were wounded in the gun battles that took place in Mogadishu on March 29. Reuters confirmed that at least 28 people were killed in the fighting. [6][7]

On March 30, an Ethiopian Mi-24 helicopter was seen shot down in the Somali capital as it bombed military positions held by insurgents.[8]

On March 31, a Ugandan soldier was killed by artillery in Mogadishu in the first hh reported by African peacekeepers in the Somali capital, a spokesman said on Sunday. He said "Our troops were guarding the presidential compound on Saturday when it was struck by mortars. One of our soldiers was killed." Meanwhile, the International Committee of the Red Cross said the fighting is Mogadishu's worst for more than 15 years. [9]

On April 1, it was reported that the death toll of the previous four days of heavy fighting in the capital is at least 849 killed civilians, 200 insurgents and 36 Ethiopian soldiers along with the one Ugandan soldier, for a total of 1,086 dead.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] 2nd ceasefire

Fighting was essentially halted for April 2, after Hawiye clan leaders declared a truce with Ethiopian military officials starting 2 pm April 1. They further called on Ethiopian troops to withdraw from areas they had occupied during the past few days of fighting.^[10] Although there had been a lull in fighting on April 2,^[11] Salad Ali Jelle, the deputy Defence Minister of the TFG denied that there had been or would be any ceasefires between Hawiye clan leaders and Ethiopian military forces. Jelle stated that it was not Hawiyes involved in the recent fighting, but "remnants of the defeated Islamist" and called upon civilians residing in insurgent positions to evacuate the area.^[12]

[edit] 3rd round of fighting

On April 11, at least two people have been killed and three others were wounded in a renewed fighting that erupted in north of the Somalia capital between interim government troops and local insurgents overnight.[10] However, on 12 April Somalia's Ambassador to Ethiopia Abdikarin Farah stated that Mogadishu was now peaceful for the first time in sixteen years.[11]

“	Early in the morning of the first day, bullets started flying between the insurgents and the government; we could not even leave our homes. The militia [insurgents] that were fighting were behind our compound, I don’t know if they were Al-Shaabab or Hawiye fighters. They were firing mortars and then running away. They were firing the mortars at the TFG and the Ethiopians, at the Presidential Palace and at the Ministry of Defense where the Ethiopians were based. Whenever the insurgents fired mortars at the Ethiopians, the Ethiopians responded with shells, but the Ethiopians shot them untargeted, they killed many civilians and even our animals.	”
—42-year-old woman from Towfiq neighborhood, describing the events of March 29, 2007.^[13]

On April 14, two government soldiers are killed in an ambush in the capital.[12]

On April 17, heavy street fighting renewed in the northern part of Mogadishu, with at least 11 dead civilians. And on the next day heavy mortar fire erupted killing another 3 civilians.[13] The fighting continued into April 19, with another 12 civilians dead, while a suicide car bomb exploded at an Ethiopian army base wounding at least 10 Ethiopian soldiers. In addition 10 more soldiers were wounded when their truck hit a landmine in the city.[14]

Aid workers report that nearly half a million people fled the city, almost 1/2 of the population and only fighters and men protecting their property remain in the city. [15]

It was reported that in the latest round of fighting from April 17 to April 24, at least 358 people had been killed, including 45 insurgents, and 680 were wounded. It is estimated that close to 320,000 Somalis have fled Mogadishu since February, with many more still trapped there.^[14]^[15]

On April 26, Ethiopian troops took insurgent strongholds in Northern Mogadishu. They first occupied the neighborhoods of Tawfiq and Ramadan, before moving further North and capturing the Balad checkpoint in Northern Mogadishu, the main one for Mogadishu and an important supply line for insurgents. [16]

Somali Prime Minister Ali Mohammed Ghedi declared victory over the insurgents on April 26, saying "The worst of the fighting in the city is now over" and urging displaced residents to return to their homes. He also claimed that his forces, backed by Ethiopian tanks and artillery, had overrun an insurgent stronghold in northern Mogadishu, capturing at least 100 enemy fighters.

[edit] Aftermath

Within days since the declaration of victory by the TFG, insurgent attacks resumed, increasingly based on targeting Ethiopian and TFG forces with remote-controlled explosive devices. ^[16]

[edit] Casualties

Local human rights groups and Hawiye clan elders estimated that the numbers of civilians killed in the first round of fighting in March 2007 alone ranged from nearly 400 to 1,000, with more than 4,000 others wounded. Hawiye elders estimated that the second round of fighting resulted in the deaths of almost 300 civilians and wounded 587 more. It was not possible to give more precise mortality figures for several reasons. ^[17]

The intensity of the fighting and bombardment in late-March restricted civilian movement in and around conflict areas. As the fighting escalated on March 29, many of the dead were left in their homes, in other buildings, or even on the streets where they had been killed because it was too dangerous to collect and bury the bodies. By April 2, when Ethiopian forces and Hawiye clan elders negotiated a ceasefire to collect and bury the dead, some bodies had already seriously decomposed in the heat, making identification difficult. ^[18]

Combatants' casualties were not disclosed each side.

[edit] Displacement

At least 365,000 people fled Mogadishu in the period from February to May 2007, according to UN estimates. Many of those who fled the city escaped during the temporary ceasefire beginning April 2 and in the roughly two-week period that followed. Tens of thousands of people stayed within the vicinity of Mogadishu, relocating to neighboring towns such as Afgoi and Marka (respectively 30 and 100 kilometers from the city, but many others traveled as far as Hargeysa and Bosaso in the north or all the way to the Kenyan border in the south. ^[19]

[edit] Human rights abuses and crimes

All parties involved in the conflict have violated the laws of war. It should be noted, however, that a violation by one side does not justify a violation by the other. E.g. insurgent forces unlawfully deploying in densely populated neighborhoods would not justify Ethiopian forces bombarding those areas indiscriminately. ^[20]

[edit] Violations by the insurgency

According to HRW, the insurgency deployed their forces in densely populated civilian areas and often launched mortar rounds in “hit-and-run” tactics that placed civilians at unnecessary risk. It is unknown, however, whether insurgents purposefully used civilians to shield themselves from attack, a war crime.

Among the violations cited by HRW are also attacks on TFG civilian personnel and firing of mortars in a manner that did not discriminate between civilians and military objectives. Also, in at least one incident executed captured combatants in their custody, and subjected the bodies to degrading treatment.^[21]

[edit] Violations by the Ethiopian military

The Ethiopian troops failed to take all precautions to avoid incidental loss of civilian life and property. They failed to verify if their targets were military objectives. Also, they failed to take all feasible precautions to avoid civilian casualties by their choice of means (firing inherently indiscriminate rockets in urban areas) and methods (using mortars and other indirect weapons without spotters) of warfare.

According to HRW, the Ethiopian military routinely and indiscriminately fired rockets, mortars, and artillery in a manner that did not differ between civilian and military objectives or that caused civilian loss of life that exceeded the expected military gain. The use of area bombardments in populated areas and the failure to cancel attacks once the harm to civilians became known is evidence of criminal intent necessary to demonstrate the commission of war crimes.

The military is also accused of attacks on hospitals— in which it appeared to deliberately target civilian objects known to contain civilians and widespread pillaging and looting of civilian property, including of medical equipment at hospitals. ^[22]

[edit] Violations by the TFG forces

The TFG forces failed to provide effective warnings when alerting civilians of impending military operations. Like the Ethiopian military, it participated in widespread pillaging and looting of civilian property. The TFG forces interfered with the delivery of humanitarian assistance and in some instances directly attacked humanitarian personnel. Also, it was reported that it committed mass arrests and mistreatment of persons in custody. ^[23]