AU force closing in on Mogadishu’s prized market in tricky urban warfare

Foreign fighters from Yemen and Pakistan are actively taking part in the battle for control of Mogadishu. There are also fighters from African countries.

Col Paul Lokech, the commander of Ugandan forces in Mogadishu, says the foreigners stay alone and are using Somalis to extend the Jihad.

Speaking during a visit to the Interior Ministry, the former base of the Foreign fighters until its capture early this month by Amisom peacekeepers, he tells of cases where his men have killed fighters from Pakistan and Yemen.

Fazul Mohamed, the al-Qaeda commander killed recently at Mogadishu’s Checkpoint X in Afgoye, was moving to meet al-Shabaab Commanders.

He took a wrong turn and was shot dead by government troops who even buried him but tests were done later and it was proved that he was the man the US had been hunting since the bombing at the US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam with a $5 million bounty on his head.

A native of Comoros, Fazul was a key player among the foreign fighters in Somalia who find the mayhem in Somalia a perfect playground for their operations.

The work done on the front line by al-Shabaab and its foreign allies is admirable in military terms.

There are huge trenches some running right under mosques and former government offices and, there is constant exchange of fire by both sides.

Heavy guns boom from bunkers and sandbags and everyone in vicinity must don body armour. On the horizon, any movement attracts gunfire, whether by car or on foot.

Says Col Lokech: “In the military, most difficult warfare is in urban areas. The tactic the enemy is using is what they copied from Chechnya. They dig tunnels, it is very difficult to pick them.’’

Right now there are signs that Bakara market will be taken by the Ugandan and Burundi peacekeepers by October. It is what Col Lokech calls a “concentrated urban area’’ that can only be approached using less lethal weapons to avoid damage to property.

Taking the market in August is out of the question since it will be Ramadhan, and al-Shabaab is known to be very lethal during fasting periods as they “fight to die”.

The plan to take Bakara involves cutting out the area up to a road junction that leads to the market using two battle fronts run by Burundians and Ugandans.

The war is already being planned by two officers: Lt Col John Mugaruwa and Lt Col Antony Mbuusi whose forces are now at the Red Mosque, a few metres from the market, advancing from west to east.

Once the troops cut out all access roads to the market, they can then advance on it. As the battle rages for Mogadishu, the transitional federal government is also battling insurgents in Gedo, Hiran, Galgadud and Kismayu.

At the same time, Somalia can now take pride in its own government army that appears to have very high morale. We even had a session with a Somali general who took us around his command area.

Gen Abdikarim Yusuf Dagabaden is a veteran fighter whose contribution is key to the battle to take Mogadishu from insurgents.

In Mogadishu, even in captured areas, it is not unusual to see a road blocked with a truck especially when commanders are visiting any part of the city.