MOGADISHU: A health official says at least 14 people, including women and children, have been killed overnight in Somalia's capital, as fierce weekend battles have continued into the new week.Rufai Mohamed says the ambulance services he leads in Mogadishu collected the bodies of mostly civilians. Hospital officials say they have admitted at least 45 wounded people from the fighting.Battles between Islamic insurgents and pro-government forces began Monday afternoon and continued through the night. The fighting has died down early Tuesday, but sporadic gunfire can be heard in parts of the city. The weekend saw some of the worst fighting in recent weeks, with at least 35 people killed. A local human rights body says as of Monday afternoon 17,200 resident had fled their homes.
BAGHDAD: Nearly 500 U.S. Army combat engineers who specialize in clearing roads of explosives started shifting to southern Afghanistan."We are probably going to be the beginning of the influx you are going to see to Afghanistan," Lt. Col. Kevin Landers, commander of the Fort Carson, Colo.-based 4th Engineer Battalion, said as crews packed crates and cleaned vehicles for the flight to Kandahar.Obama has ordered 17,000 more U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan to bolster the 38,000 American troops already battling the resurgent Taliban."We are going to take this footprint out of Iraq," said Landers, whose battalion received word of its reassignment last month just after taking command of clearing roads in Baghdad of bombs and debris.
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