Reports indicate heavy fighting, losses in Somalia

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http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/world/7442396.html

Reports indicate heavy fighting, losses in Somalia

© 2011 The Associated Press

Feb. 23, 2011, 11:46AM

MOGADISHU, Somalia — Reports in Somalia indicate that intense fighting between

African Union peacekeepers and Islamist militants has resulted in heavy

casualties.

A spokesman for the African Union, Maj. Barigye Bahoku, said peacekeepers had

killed 14 militants on Wednesday. He declined to comment on reports of heavy

losses by the AU troops.

An al-Shabab spokesman, Sheik Ali Mohamud Rage, said that militants had killed

five peacekeepers and captured one alive. He said the militants had paraded the

bodies of the five men.

The captured peacekeeper is from Burundi, Rage said.

A Nairobi-based diplomat who quoted defense sources in Mogadishu said reports

indicated that up to 10 African Union troops were killed and dozens were wounded

in Wednesday's fighting.