Troops fire on Mogadishu protest, kill 3-witness

MOGADISHU, Jan 22 (Reuters) Ethiopian troops and Somali police opened fire on Mogadishu demonstrators today, killing at least three in the latest violence in parts of the capital where support for ousted Islamists ran high, a witness said.

Protesters hurled stones and some shot back with assault rifles at the joint security forces, said a local journalist who asked not be to named. The clashes took place in a neighbourhood where Ethiopian and government troops fought gunmen on Saturday.

The witness said Ethiopian troops returned to a livestock market in the north of the coastal city where an attack on an Ethiopian military convoy triggered a heavy battle on Saturday.

''The Ethiopians used something like a bazooka to break down the gate of a house in the area, then they arrested two men inside,'' the reporter said. ''Locals began throwing stones at them, some shot rifles, and then the Ethiopians returned fire.'' He said three men were killed at the scene and at least five people injured. The demonstrators burned tyres in the streets and stoned vehicles carrying local journalists.

At least four civilians were killed in the area on Saturday after the latest in a string of guerrilla-style attacks launched by suspected remnants of the Somalia Islamic Courts Council.

The Islamists were chased out of strongholds in Mogadishu and much of the south over the New Year by a combined force of Somali soldiers and Ethiopian tanks, troops and fighter jets.

Reuters BDP DB1348