Guns silent in Mogadishu, hundreds thought dead

Mogadishu, Apr 2: Guns were silent in Mogadishu today after four days of battles pitting Ethiopian and Somali troops against insurgents, in which several hundred people are believed to have been killed, witnesses said.

''This is the first time since four days ago that we don't hear heavy shelling going on,'' a Reuters reporter said, surveying the city from his roof after daybreak.

Leaders of the city's dominant Hawiye clan said yesterday they had reached a ceasefire. But previous truces have been broken, and hundreds more Ethiopian troops were seen arriving in the Somali capital over the weekend.

With rotting bodies still lying in the streets today, it was impossible to calculate an exact death toll from what the International Committee of the Red Cross called Mogadishu's worst fighting in more than 15 years.

Somali reporters have seen scores of corpses, Ethiopia says it has killed 200 insurgents, and residents say they believe several hundred people mainly civilians have died.

The international community has reacted with horror to the latest flare-up in Somalia, but remains powerless to stop it.

A small African Union (AU) peacekeeping force of some 1,200 Ugandan soldiers has been caught in the crossfire, pinned down at strategic sites like the air and sea ports. It lost a soldier during a mortar attack on the presidential compound yesterday.

Reuters