Mogadishu: Life on the front line in a city laid bare by war

[Coeus]

The sea breeze carries the sound of Mogadishu's dawn chorus of munitions as far as the sand dunes high above the Indian Ocean. On the horizon, the grey hull of a foreign warship patrols for pirates; inland, mortars thud out from the African Union (AU) positions around the old harbour and volleys of automatic fire reply from the direction of al-Shabaab's stronghold at the notorious Bakara Market. The exchanges are interspersed with the sharp crack of sniper fire.

In a seemingly endless war, the battle for the shattered Somali capital has reached another turning point. In among the warren of ruined buildings the African peacekeepers, sent here to protect Somalia's weak UN-backed government from the onslaught of Islamic extremist militias, are inching forward.

The frontline is reached through a series of skeletal hotels, once grand seaside residences where soldiers' tents are now pitched in bare concrete shells. The battle is being fought "building by building" according to Lt-Col Francis Chemo, a commander with the Ugandan contingent, and the opposing lines are only "metres apart".



source: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world ... 46230.html