Report cites civilian deaths in Somalia

The head of the city’s ambulance service said progovernment forces from the African Union and Somali troops are to blame for the majority of the civilian deaths.

“All of those victims are civilians killed either by stray bullets or hit by mortars or by artillery shells,’’ said Muse, who is the head of Lifeline Africa Ambulance Service. “About 80 percent of them died at Bakara market, which is the main target of the African Union peacekeepers.’’

Major Barigye Bahoku, the spokesman for the 7,000-strong African Union force in Mogadishu, said he could not comment on the ambulance service report.

Human rights groups and Mogadishu residents have repeatedly accused the African Union of indiscriminately targeting populated areas of the city with artillery fire after insurgents fire mortars toward AU troops.

The executive director of CIVIC, the US-based Campaign for Innocent Victims in Conflict, said civilians bear the brunt of war in Somalia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. But she said Somalia may be the most dangerous because neither side abides by obligations under international law to avoid civilian casualties.