The Battle of Mogadishu began on 21 March 2007 in the Shirkole area of

Mogadishu Mogadishu, locally known as Xamar or Hamar, is the capital and List of cities in Somalia by population, most populous city of Somalia. The city has served as an important port connecting traders across the Indian Ocean for millennia and has ...

between Somali

Transitional Federal Government The Transitional Federal Government (TFG) (, , ) was internationally recognized as a provisional government of the Somalia from 14 October 2004 until 20 August 2012. It was established in Nairobi, Kenya, following the Transitional National Govern ...

forces and allied Ethiopian troops, and Islamist insurgents. The battle usually includes the dates, when referenced, in order to distinguish it amongst the nine major Battles of Mogadishu during the decades-long

Somali Civil War The Somali Civil War (; ) is an List of ongoing armed conflicts, ongoing civil war that is taking place in Somalia. It grew out of resistance to the military junta which was led by Siad Barre during the 1980s. From 1988 to 1990, the Somali Armed ...

The battle

First round of fighting

A failed 21 March and 22 disarmament operation by the TFG resulted in the capture of TFG troops.

Cargo plane shot down

On 23 March 2007, a

TransAVIAexport Airlines TAE Avia, formerly named TransAVIAexport Airlines, is a Belarusian national cargo airline. It is based at Minsk International Airport in Belarus, with a hub at Sharjah International Airport, in the United Arab Emirates. History TransAVIAexpor ...

Ilyushin Il-76 The Ilyushin Il-76 (; NATO reporting name: Candid) is a multi-purpose, fixed-wing, four-engine turbofan strategic airlifter designed by the Soviet Union's Ilyushin design bureau as a commercial freighter in 1967, to replace the Antonov An-1 ...

plane crashed in

. The plane is thought to have been shot down. There were 11 people on board the aircraft, all but one Belarusian crew members died in the crash. The other remaining survivors were found wandering around the crash site and later died in hospitals.

2nd round of fighting

On 1 April, it was reported that the death toll of the previous four days of heavy fighting in the capital is at least 849 killed civilians, 200 insurgents and 36 Ethiopian soldiers along with the one Ugandan soldier, for a total of 1,086 dead.

2nd ceasefire

Fighting was essentially halted for 2 April, after

Hawiye The Hawiye (; ) are one of the principal and largest of the Somali clans, tracing their lineage back to Sheikh Ahmed Bin Abdulrahman Bin Uthman, also known as Sheikh Hawiye, the eponymous figure of the clan. They are considered the earliest do ...

clan leaders declared a truce with Ethiopian military officials starting 2 pm 1 April. They further called on Ethiopian troops to withdraw from areas they had occupied during the past few days of fighting. Although there had been a lull in fighting on 2 April, Salad Ali Jelle, the deputy Defence Minister of the TFG denied that there had been or would be any ceasefires between Hawiye clan leaders and Ethiopian military forces. Jelle stated that it was not Hawiyes involved in the recent fighting, but "remnants of the defeated Islamist" and called upon civilians residing in insurgent positions to evacuate the area.

3rd round of fighting

On 11 April, at least two people have been killed and three others were wounded in a renewed fighting that erupted in north of the Somalia capital between interim government troops and local insurgents overnight. However, on 12 April Somalia's Ambassador to

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

Abdikarin Farah stated that Mogadishu was now peaceful for the first time in sixteen years. On 14 April, two government soldiers are killed in an ambush in the capital. On 17 April, heavy street fighting renewed in the northern part of Mogadishu, with at least 11 dead civilians. And on the next day heavy mortar fire erupted killing another 3 civilians. The fighting continued into 19 April, with another 12 civilians dead, while a suicide car bomb exploded at an Ethiopian army base wounding at least 10 Ethiopian soldiers. In addition 10 more soldiers were wounded when their truck hit a landmine in the city. Aid workers report that nearly half a million people fled the city, almost 1/2 of the population and only fighters and men protecting their property remain in the city. It was reported that in the latest round of fighting from 17 to 24 April, at least 358 people had been killed, including 45 insurgents, and 680 were wounded. It is estimated that close to 320,000 Somalis have fled Mogadishu since February, with many more still trapped there. On 26 April, Ethiopian troops took insurgent strongholds in Northern Mogadishu. They first occupied Tawfiq and Ramadan, before moving further north and capturing the Balad checkpoint in Northern Mogadishu, the main one for Mogadishu and an important supply line for insurgents. Somali Prime Minister

Ali Mohammed Ghedi Ali Mohammed Gedi (, ) (born 2 October 1952), popularly known as Ali Gedi, is a Somali politician who served as Prime Minister of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) from 2004 to 2007. A former academic and veterinary doctor based in Addis ...

declared victory over the insurgents on 26 April, saying "the worst of the fighting in the city is now over" and urging displaced residents to return to their homes. He also claimed that his forces, backed by Ethiopian tanks and artillery, had overrun an insurgent stronghold in northern Mogadishu, capturing at least 100 enemy fighters.

Notes

External links

Helicopter downing photo
2007 in Ethiopia 2007 in Somalia Urban warfare 2000s in Mogadishu Mogadishu 2007-03 March 2007 in Africa April 2007 in Africa Battles involving Uganda Battles in Mogadishu Battles in 2007 Battles involving al-Shabaab (militant group) Ethiopian war crimes during the Somali Civil War Battles of the Somali Civil War involving Ethiopia {{DEFAULTSORT:Mogadishu, 2007 March-April