200807031848 | Somali Insurgents attack Ugandan troops in Mogadishu.

Somali Insurgents attack Ugandan troops in Mogadishu.

At least 47 people were killed in Somalia when Islamist insurgents clashed with Ugandan peacekeepers and Ethiopian troops in separate battles, a human rights group said yesterday.

Both the interim government and Ethiopia declined comment on the clashes or any casualties but the spokesman for the Africa Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom), Maj. Barigye-Bahoku said there were no casualties on the Ugandan and Burundian peacekeepers.

“These were unknown elements but we managed to repulse them with no injuries,” he said. “The attackers were engaged by Amisom after they attacked us at 17:20 hours (5.00a.m). The attack will not deter us from our main objective of peace keeping,” he added.

The estimated 2,200 Ugandan and the Burundian peacekeepers protect the presidential palace and the airport in addition to opening humanitarian lines through the insurgent infested areas.

The latest flare-up in the 18-month-old insurgency came a week before a UN-mediated ceasefire between an Islamist faction and the interim Somali government is to take effect.

Hard line Islamists have been waging an almost daily Iraq-style insurgency against the interim government and its Ethiopian backers since they were ousted from Mogadishu and most of southern Somalia in 2007.

He said eleven civilians were killed when Islamists ambushed Ethiopian troops and Ugandan peacekeepers in the capital Mogadishu overnight, while dozens of others were wounded.

Another 36 people, including civilians and insurgents, were killed when rebels struck an Ethiopian troop convoy in Mataban, 410 km (255 miles) north of the Somali capital Mogadishu.

Among the dead on Tuesday were Moalim Farhan, commander of the militant group that attacked the convoy, and Abdullahi Ali Farah, also known as Sheikh Aspro, a spokesman for the insurgents told Reuters. Aspro is deputy to hardline Islamist Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, who is on US and UN lists of al Qaeda associates.