Gee, I wonder if we are funding Somali Warlords to fight Al Queda queers in Mog?? Aren't these the same warlords that killed Delta and Ranger teams in October of 1993? Glad to see we have learned a lesson. So the 17 (106 wounded) rangers and Delta that died in Oct 3-8 1993 died for absolutely nothing and in fact the same country they were fighting for is now arming the groups that killed them.....wonderful. And they wonder why we question the government.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/africa...est/index.html

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MOGADISHU, Somalia (CNN) -- Renewed and intense fighting between Islamic fighters and an alliance of Somali warlords has broken out in the Somali capital of Mogadishu.

Journalist Mohamed Amiin said he saw one civilian lying in a pool of blood in the middle of the street and reports indicated the other two civilians also lay dead in the city streets Thursday.

Scores fled the fighting, which erupted on Wednesday and intensified Thursday morning as it spread across Mogadishu. The streets were full of terrified old people and children, witnesses told Reuters news agency.

A Mogadishu hospital said it was treating around 50 wounded civilians and fighters.

"People are being carried on wheelbarrows to the hospital with broken limbs and gunshot wounds. It's going from bad to worse," resident Abdifatah Abdikadir told Reuters by telephone from southern Mogadishu.

"The fighting is very heavy. They are hitting each other with mortars, anti-aircraft missiles and anti-tanks," coalition member Ibrahim Maalim told Reuters. "I have never seen such a heavy exchange. Mogadishu is blazing with fire," he added, as heavy artillery and gunshots reverberated over the telephone.

"There are bodies lying everywhere. I cannot count them and there are wounded people lying on the streets crying for help," Maalim told Reuters.
Alliance says militia tied to al Qaeda

The battles under way pit the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism against a union of Islamic fighters who support sharia -- Islamic law -- in the capital.

The alliance argues the Islamists are allied with al Qaeda; the Islamists accuse the United States of funneling cash to the warlords.

The United States says it supports Somalia's anti-terrorism efforts, but has decried the fighting in Mogadishu, which broke out earlier this month, killing more than 140 people -- most of them civilians, including many children.

Thursday's fighting began around 7 a.m. (midnight ET) and was concentrated in southern Mogadishu, where the Islamic fighters have taken control of the Sahafi Hotel -- previously controlled by the alliance.

Earlier this month, Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed declared that any government ministers participating in the fighting would be removed from the government.

International concerns about the east African nation have been growing amid reports the al Qaeda terrorist network may have increased its presence in the chaotic state in recent years.

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