Nine people were killed and an unknown number of others wounded Thursday in the central Somali town of Beledweyn following a heavy shelling by Ethiopian troops, senior elder and witnesses said.
"I was informed of the death of six people and the injury of many in the town after the Ethiopian troops shelled Beledweyn," Daar Hersi Hoshow, head of the Council of Traditional Elders of Hiran, told Xinhua by phone from Beledweyn, 300 km north of the capital Mogadishu.
Hoshow said the casualty figure could be higher as the town is cut off from others after Ethiopian troops set up check points in and around the city.
"We had an agreement with both the Ethiopian troops and the Islamic Courts Union that both sides should not come and fight in the city but we do not know what has changed," Horshow said.
An eyewitness in Beledweyn told Xinhua that he saw three more civilians die as a result of the shelling.
Leaders of the Hiran Council of Elders last week reached a deal with commanders of the Ethiopian troops and fighters of the Islamic Courts Union (ICU). They agreed that Ethiopian troops who were stationed on the outskirts of the city would not enter the city while fighters in the city would leave it.
Reports from the town said that fighting has broken out when the fighters of the ICU returned to the town after Ethiopian troops carried out heavy shelling of the city before they started fanning out deeply into Beledweyn
Beledweyn is the provincial capital of Hiran region which borders Ethiopia and has been the scene of bloody confrontations between the two sides. The region has changed hands a number of times before.
Source:Xinhua
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