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Some 50 people, many of them fighters, were killed Wednesday in clashes across Somalia, witnesses and officials said.
The deaths came as Somali government forces backed by African Union troops launched a fresh offensive against al-Qaeda-inspired rebels.
“We have counted at least 20 civilians killed,” Ali Muse, head of the Mogadishu ambulance service said.
There are at least 10,000 dead and 50,000 wounded in Libya, according to reports by Al Arabiya on Twitter quoting a member of the International Criminal Court.
The death toll was reportd by the Libyan member of the ICC, Sayed al Shanuka, who was interviewed from Paris.
The official figures provided by the Libyan government yesterday indicated 300 dead, while this morning Italian foreign minister Franco Frattini stated that he believed more in the death of ‘’more than 1,000 innocents”.
Heavy clashes between Somaliland forces and Sool, Sanaag and Cayn (SCC) rebel group re-started in the second day in the village of Maygaagle in Buhodle district in Sool region in northern Somalia, locals said on Monday.
Witnesses said heavy gun battle and bombardments, which the two warring sides had been exchanging, could be heard around the battle zones.
Sources told Shabelle that at least 8 people were killed and more 10 others hurt during the clashes today.
Puntland Security personnel arrested SSC terrorist commander Yasin Ali Tamaad in the central Somali town of Galkayo where he was a transit on his way back from Mogadishu. Yasin Tamaad is in charge of the military wing of the terrorist group Sool Sanaag and Cayn (SSC) and in the recent days has verbally threatened to attack Somaliland forces when he comes back to the region.
Puntland Security forces arrested Tamaad after he got off a flight from Mogadishu in which he is suspected of receiving funds and weapons from the weak Transition Federal Government of Mogadishu. He was in Mogadishu last several weeks holding talks with members of the TFG and alShabaab in Mogadishu to solicit funds and weapons.
More than 250 soldiers loyal to Somalia’s semi-autonomous region of Puntland have defected from the pirate infested region to form a clan militia, source reports.
According to Hargeisa-based newspaper Haatuf, more than 250 troops, who took part in the August 2010 Galgala conflict between Abdirahman Farole of Garowe and a local warlord, Sheikh Mohamed Atam, have established their own base outside Badhan. The troops, who belong to the Warsangeli tribe is led by Abdulrasaq Kun-Liq. The defected troops have not joined a Somaliland base in the town either.
The paper also revealed other members of the army that was in the area have deserted their positions and returned to the town of Gardo (Qardho), in the district of Karkaar, in Puntland.