MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) – Firing rocket-propelled grenades and heavy submachine guns, Somali fighters seized the police headquarters at the heart of the government’s stronghold in Mogadishu on Thursday, in a bold attack that witnesses said killed two soldiers and two policemen.

The insurgents have tried many times to attack the heavily guarded K4 district but Thursday’s raid was their first major success.

It came a day after a bloody Wednesday in the Horn of Africa nation. Insurgents attacked Ethiopian Woyanne military convoys in two rural areas Wednesday, and the soldiers responded by opening fire on civilians, killing at least 17 villagers, witnesses said.

It was not known how many Ethiopians Woyannes died in that fighting. The insurgents said one of their regional commanders was killed.

Elsewhere, a roadside bomb killed three Somali soldiers Wednesday, a military officer said. A separate attack on a World Food Program convoy in central Somalia killed one of the organization’s drivers, U.N. officials said.

In Mogadishu on Thursday, witnesses said, an explosion rocked Makalal Mukrama Road outside the police headquarters in K4 district and plumes of black smoke rose into the night air after fighters set ablaze a captured «technical» — a pickup truck with a submachine gun fixed to its bed.

The blast came after the insurgents seized the police station, yelling «God is great,» witnesses said.
«The fighting was hideous, terrifying,» said resident Hawa Abdi. The gunfire was so heavy that «I thought it would smash the walls of my concrete home.

Elmi Osman, another resident of the area, said bullets crashed through the window of the house where he lives, killing his aunt and a nephew.

Street hawker Abisaq Mohamed said he saw the bodies of two police officers sprawled in the middle of Makalal Mukrama Road, where he lives. He said he also saw two government soldiers killed in the fighting, and one insurgent being carried away.

Insurgents’ spokesman Abdirahim Issa Adow told The Associated Press that his fighters had killed eight policemen. He said one rebel fighter was killed and two were wounded in the attack.

He said the insurgents also fired mortars into two Ethiopian Woyanne military bases in the capital — a claim that could not be verified.

By 8 p.m., the witnesses said, the attackers had disappeared, abandoning the police station as they have other targets, using the guerrilla tactics that have kept alive their insurgency.

On Wednesday, in the central province of Hiran, suspected insurgents attacked an Ethiopian Woyanne convoy with rocket-propelled grenades, witnesses said. «I saw two Ethiopian Woyanne military vehicles burning and several soldiers underneath them, but I cannot confirm whether they were dead,» Ahmedey Farah Hilowle told The Associated Press by telephone from his village 40 miles (65 kilometers) south of the provincial capital, Beletweyne.

The Ethiopian Woyanne troops retaliated by opening fire, killing eight civilians including a woman who was collecting water from a well, villager Abdisalan Muxsim said. Residents said they found the bodies of six insurgents lying in nearby bush.
But Adow, the insurgents’ spokesman, said only two insurgents were killed, including regional commander Amin Barqadle Daad.

Their accounts could not be verified Thursday by Somali authorities. Ethiopia Woyanne, which sent troops into Somalia to back up soldiers fighting insurgents, does not make public its troops’ fatalities.

International human rights groups have accused Ethiopian Woyanne troops of targeting civilians out of frustration over their failure to halt insurgents.

«We inflicted a great loss of lives on them (Ethiopians Woyannes) and destroyed their vehicles, but in retaliation the enemy troops mercilessly killed civilians,» Adow said.

Also Wednesday, in the Lower Shabelle region, Ethiopian Woyanne troops killed nine civilians after suspected insurgents ambushed a military convoy between Yaqberiweyne and Belidogle, 65 miles (110 kilometers) south of Mogadishu, witnesses said.

«During the battle, we ran away from our village to the bush,» resident Said Abukar Ganey said. «This morning, we came back and we found the bodies of nine of our villagers.

Elsewhere, a roadside bomb hit a truck carrying Somali soldiers, killing three troops and wounding six, military officer Madey Hassan Nur said late Wednesday by telephone. He said the explosion occurred just outside Baidoa, the seat of the interim parliament, about 150 miles (250 kilometers) southwest of Mogadishu.

«An explosion sent us into the air. When we fell back to the ground, three of my colleagues were lying there dead and six others were screaming from their wounds,» Nur said.

In the Mudug region, militiamen demanding money opened fire on a 12-truck convoy transporting food into central Somalia, the U.N. World Food Program said. The driver died of his wounds, officials said.

Hundreds of Ethiopian soldiers have died in Somalia, Ethiopian Woyanne Foreign Affairs spokesman Wahide Belay said from Addis Ababa, the Ethiopian capital, earlier in the week. About 3,000 Ethiopian troops are deployed in Somalia, he said. [This is a lie. The fact is that there are over 20,000 Woyanne soldiers in Somalia currently.]
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Associated Press writer Mohamed Sheikh Nor contributed to this report from Mogadishu.