SOMALIA:Rebels shot down a helicopter gunship in Mogadishu yesterday in a second day of battles as Ethiopian and Somali forces sought to crush an insurgency by Islamists and clan militia. At least 30 people, and probably far more, have died.
Shells rained down on the capital and deafening tank fire shattered homes as hundreds of guerrillas replied with barrages of mortars, missiles and rocket-propelled grenades (RPGs).
As terrified residents hid in their homes, reporters watched from rooftops as two Ethiopian helicopters fired on an insurgent stronghold before one of them was struck by a missile or RPG.
"Smoke billowed from the cabin and it turned towards the ocean," one witness, Swiss journalist Eugen Sorg reported. "It crashed at the south end of the airport runway."
The joint Ethiopian and government offensive triggered the bullet-scarred capital's worst clashes for months.
A spokesman for Ban Ki-moon said the UN secretary-general was "deeply disturbed" by the intensified fighting.
"He is particularly concerned about the use of air strikes and the introduction of tanks and heavy artillery into densely populated parts of the city."
More than 100 people have been wounded since Thursday and the toll of dead and injured looked sure to rise.
Faisal Jamah, a south Mogadishu resident, said: "A mortar has just fallen into the house next to me. We can hear crying. We barely slept. The sky was lit up by shelling all night.
"There are a lot of wounded, but there is no way to take them to the hospitals due to the fighting."
Mobs dragged dead Ethiopian soldiers through the streets on Thursday and wild-eyed gunmen posed with the corpses.
With some of the clan militia who used to rule the capital fighting alongside the Islamists, the battles have torn a brief and shaky truce between the Ethiopian military and the city's dominant clan, the Hawiye, to shreds.
Analysts said Addis Ababa appeared bent on an all-out push against the insurgents, who have been emboldened by recent strikes, including the downing of an aircraft serving an African peacekeeping mission, and ambushes killing soldiers.
While Christian-led Ethiopia clearly hopes this week's offensive will crush the rebels once and for all, the experts said it may have the opposite effect of further alienating the city's population or attracting foreign Muslim jihadists.
Some of yesterday's heaviest fighting rocked streets around the main soccer stadium, where witnesses said Ethiopian troops and rebels had dug trenches just a few metres apart.
One Islamist gunman said the Ethiopians were pinned down. "We killed a lot of them and burned their trucks," Hassan Osman said. "Right now, they control only the stadium."
Local media said panic-stricken civilians continued to flee the city yesterday, many of them piling their possessions on donkey-carts. The UN refugee agency said 12,000 had left Mogadishu in the last week alone.
Despite the carnage, prime minister Ali Mohamed Gedi was confident a major reconciliation conference scheduled to take place in Mogadishu in mid-April would still go ahead. Moderate Islamists who renounced violence and recognised his government's legitimacy would be allowed to take part, he said.
The African Union (AU) has sent 1,200 Ugandan troops to help the government, but they have been attacked. Other African nations are baulking at sending further troops needed to boost the AU force to its planned strength of 8,000. - ( Reuters)