MOGADISHU (Reuters) – Dozens died in fighting between al Shabaab rebels and Ethiopian troops near the central Somali town of Baidoa and another small town yesterday, residents, regional officials and the Islamist rebels said.
There were differing accounts of which side bore the brunt of casualties in the small town of Yurkud early yesterday, the heaviest clashes involving Ethiopian troops since they returned to Somalia in force last year after withdrawing in early 2009.
Ethiopian and Somali government troops then clashed with al Shabaab forces near Baidoa, the former seat of the Somali parliament that was wrestled back from rebel control last month for the first time in more than three years. The fighting came the day after the African Union said Ethiopia planned to pull its troops out of Somalia by the end of April with soldiers from Djibouti, Uganda and Burundi taking their positions.
The governor of Bay region in Somalia, Abdifatah Mohamed Ibrahim Gesey, told Reuters that 130 al Shabaab fighters were killed in Yurkud, with minimal loses on the government and Ethiopian side.
Al Shabaab’s spokesman for military operations, Sheikh Abdiasis Abu Musab, told Reuters its forces had killed 73 Ethiopian soldiers, captured two along with many weapons, and lost 5 of its fighters before the Ethiopians fled.
A spokesman for Ethiopia’s foreign ministry said he would comment on the reports later.
Al Shabaab later posted an audio recording on a website, which it claimed was the voice of one of the two Ethiopian soldiers captured in Yurkud. In a Somali translation, it said the soldier admitted a number of his colleagues had been killed.
Residents of Yurkud told Reuters that dozens of bodies from both sides littered the streets and that Ethiopian soldiers remained in control after fierce fighting.
It is difficult to get accurate accounts of casualties from clashes in Somalia as all sides tend to exaggerate their successes and underplay their losses. The actual death toll was probably lower than that given by the opposing sides.
