Somali defends AU peacekeepers' role

MOGADISHU: The Somali government on Thursday strongly defended the role of the African Union (AU) peacekeeping forces in Mogadishu as "positive" after the forces came under severe criticism over alleged use of excessive force in their fight against militants.

Nearly fifty civilians were killed and more than one hundred others wounded this week after Islamist fighters and Somali government forces backed by AU peacekeeping forces exchanged heavy shellings in Mogadishu.

"The African Union peacekeeping forces are here to provide peace to our people and not harm them. It is the anti-peace elements who are waging cowardly attacks on the peacekeepers," Sheikh Adan Mohamed Nur Madobe, speaker of the Somali parliament told reporters in Mogadishu.

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This comes after the AU forces were criticized for excessive use of force even by some members of the Somali government, but the speaker said the forces have a right for self-defense against what he termed flagrant aggressions from the Islamist fighters.

Madobe, who hailed the peacekeepers' role as positive, accused the opposition forces of launching the mortar attacks against the forces from within populated areas in and around the main Bakara market in Mogadishu, the scene of regular gruesome death and injury of civilians as a result of shelling.

He challenged the Islamist fighters "to face the forces and not hide among the civilians as human shields", putting the responsibly of civilian deaths squarely under the insurgents' feet.

Islamist rebels this week threatened to attack the Ugandan and Burundian capitals after they accused the two country's forces in Mogadishu of deliberately targeting civilian populated areas in Mogadishu, a charge strongly refuted by the peacekeepers and Somali government officials.

Nearly 5,000 AU peacekeeping forces from Uganda and Burundi are currently deployed in Mogadishu as part of an envisaged UN-authorized 8,000-strong force to provide security in Mogadishu and other parts of the war torn east African country.