Somali civilians killed by َAfrican Union troops
African Union troops have killed several people in separate incidents in the Somali capital Mogadishu and the southern port city of Merka.
In Mogadishu, troops belonging to the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), who were said to be stuck in a traffic jam, opened fire on a minibus, killing two of the passengers and injuring two others.
Eyewitnesses said it was not clear why the troops opened fire.
In Merka, about 109 kilometers south of the capital, AU troops killed at least nine people and wounded eight others after opening gunfire on boys playing football in a sports field, an eyewitness told Al Jazeera news agency.
"They then went to the nearby houses where they dragged people out and shot dead seventeen people. They also left 14 people badly injured," the witness said, claiming that the AU soldiers had also "raped two women" there.
Speaking to DPA, a senior police officer, who asked not to be named, gave a different account of the incident. "At least ten civilians were killed deliberately by AU troops ... and several were hospitalized with gun wounds," the officer said.
He said he did not know the reason for the killings; however, he held out the possibility that the civilians may have been killed in an act of revenge after unidentified bombers destroyed an AU water tank the previous evening.
He said the fatalities included a woman and young people.
Meantime, Somali Interior Minister Abdirahman Mohamed Hussein Odowaa said, "We cannot accept such deeds and we will launch swift investigations.”
AMISOM, created in 2007, has more than 22,000 troops, largely from Uganda, Kenya, Ethiopia, Burundi, Djibouti and Sierra Leone, stationed in the country to help government forces fight the extremist al-Shabab militants.
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