April 22, 2007

As sure as night follows day, when George W. Bush backs a "regime change" invasion of a country, you will see headlines like this: "Corpses Rotting in the Streets." We see it every day in Afghanistan and Iraq, and we are seeing it again in Somalia – the third nation-breaking operation launched under the rubric of Bush's "War on Terror."

On Saturday at least 73 people were killed in Mogadishu as vicious fighting continued between the American-backed Ethiopian invaders (along with their Somali warlord allies) and the inevitable "insurgents" produced by the Bushist overthrow. The day's death toll was just part of a week-long violent frenzy in the capital as the army of the Ethiopian dictatorship – armed and trained by American forces, and supported by American bombing raids on refugees and by U.S. "Special Ops" troops coverting around the country – shelled residential areas. Meanwhile, the insurgents – made up of hard-core remnants of the overthrown Islamist government, some tribal groups excluded by rivals in the U.S.-backed warlord faction, and the usual mix of Somali nationalists who object to having their country invaded and people taking up arms to revenge the "collateral damage" murders of family members – lashed back with increasing ferocity.

It is thought that when the final death count is in, up a thousand people will have been killed in the week's fighting, while tens of thousands of new refugees have joined the more than 100,000 people fleeing the Bush-backed destruction. Reports from Agence France Presse ("Corpses 'rotting in Mogadishu streets'") and Reuters ("Scores Killed in Fighting in Mogadishu") paint a grim scene of despair and devastation:

AFP: "Ethiopian forces are bombing down civilian sites, places where there are no insurgents," Hussein Said Korgab, the spokesman for Mogadishu's dominant Hawiye clan, said. "This morning, they have shelled places some 15km away (from the city), and people are fleeing again."

...More Ethiopian troops moved into Mogadishu to reinforce their colleagues a day after a suspected suicide bomber attacked their base south of the capital. The worsening situation in Mogadishu has led UN humanitarian officials to warn of a looming disaster...The UN said Somali government forces were blocking relief supplies and that UN aircraft were being shot at. In Mogadishu, bodies were left lying in the streets, while a cholera or diarrhea epidemic was taking hold and new flooding was likely soon, it added.

Reuters: Shells pounded Mogadishu on Saturday, killing at least 73 people to swell a death-toll already in the hundreds from this week's battles pitting militias and Islamists against Somali and Ethiopian troops.

The escalating war has also sent more than 321,000 residents fleeing in the biggest refugee movement in Somalia since the 1991 fall of a dictator ushered in 16 years of anarchy.

Even by Somali standards, Saturday's carnage was shocking. "I counted 20 dead in the street and the sidewalk. Some were missing heads, others were so mutilated you couldn't tell if they were men or women,'' resident Suleman Mohammed said from the Al Barakah market area where more than seven mortars landed. Residents and medical staff interviewed by Reuters confirmed a minimum of 73 casualties from the incessant shelling and gunfire across the city on Saturday, adding to an estimated 131 others from the previous three days' violence.

The week's final death-toll is expected to soar and may come close to the estimated 1,000 casualties from a similar four-day flare-up at the end of March. Most of the victims are civilians...

"We are in a state of shock, I see no end to this,'' said Ali Haji, 50, a resident who took his family out of Mogadishu last month but came back to protect his house and belongings. "I've had enough. I'm abandoning the house. I am caught between two groups -- Ethiopians trying to kill me because I am Somali, and insurgents not happy because I am not picking up a gun and fighting with them. I have lost all hope.''

...The only operating hospital, Madina, was packed with wounded, screams echoing through the corridors. Tents were set up in the hospital garden to deal with the influx, with many people nursing injuries unattended under trees in the heat. "Unless we get massive international help, we cannot cope,'' a doctor said."Our beds and tents are full.''