Somali mosque mortar attack soars toll to 39

 Monday, May 11, 2009    MOGADISHU: A mortar shell hit a mosque in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Sunday, killing at least 14 people as the death toll from days of fighting between Islamist rebels and government forces soared to 39.
The mosque was hit just as worshippers were filing in for afternoon prayers, witnesses said. "The mortar shell struck at the gate of the mosque. I counted about 14 people who died instantly and 10 others were wounded," Hassan Abdifatah, a worshipper at the mosque in southern Mogadishu, told.
"There were blood and body parts everywhere." Mumin Haji Yusuf, another worshipper, said: "I was inside the mosque when I heard a heavy explosion and shrapnel was flying everywhere killing many people." The fighting -- with both sides using heavy machine guns, artillery and anti-aircraft weapons -- erupted on Thursday, but escalated on Saturday as the two sides clashed over key positions in the war-ravaged Mogadishu.
The Islamists said they had taken control of contested areas in southern Mogadishu, but the government dismissed their claim. "We have taken control of the areas we fought over with the enemy of Allah," Sheikh Ali Mohamed, the rebel Islamist official in charge of Mogadishu, told reporters.
Seized, he said, were Mogadishu stadium, the defence ministry building and a key road -- a claim confirmed by several witnesses.
But at a news conference, Information Minister Farhan Mohamoud said the insurgents "did not take any position from the government forces."