Somalia fighting kills at least 39 civilians

MOGADISHU, Somalia (CNN) -- At least 39 civilians were killed in Somalia's capital Monday after a convoy of African Union peacekeepers was hit by a roadside bomb, causing the troops to open fire, officials and eyewitnesses said.Maj. Ba-Huko Barigye, spokesman to the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISON), said an explosion targeted a contingent of Ugandan troops. At least one soldier was injured and one of the vehicles damaged, Barigye said.
Ahmed Dirie Ali, spokesman of Hawiye Traditional Elders -- a major group of local clan leaders -- condemned the civilian deaths. And Mogadishu's deputy mayor, Abdifatah Ibrahim Shaweye, accused AMISOM of killing innocent civilians deliberately during a "brutal attack," an allegation Barigye denied."The deputy mayor has got the wrong information," he said. "They are targeting AMISOM, but the people who have died are all Somali civilians, who have nothing, whatsoever to do with AMISOM."Officials say the incident happened on Maka al-Mukarama road, which connects the presidential palace and the airport in southern Mogadishu. The incident occurred on the same day that the new Somali president, Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed, was attending an African Union summit in the Ethiopian capital Addis Ababa.more...http://www.edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/africa/02/02/somalia.fighting/index.html