Two peacekeepers killed in Somalia as more troops pledged (Roundup)

Jul 23, 2010, 15:12 GMT

Mogadishu - Somali insurgents killed two peacekeepers in fierce battles earlier this week, a spokesman for the African Union mission in Somalia said Friday, as a top official promised more troops would soon be deployed.

Peacekeepers from Uganda and Burundi are propping up Somalia's weak Western-backed government as Islamist insurgent group al-Shabaab and its allies press for control of the chaotic Horn of Africa nation.

'Two of our soldiers were killed in Mogadishu's Bondhere district and three others were injured on Wednesday,' Major Barigye Bahoku, of the peacekeeping mission known as AMISOM, told the German Press Agency dpa.

The three injured soldiers have been taken to Nairobi, the capital of neighbouring Kenya, for treatment, he added.

Al-Shabaab, which claims links to al-Qaeda, has penned the government into a few districts of Mogadishu and earlier this month launched its first attack on foreign soil.

Twin suicide blasts in the Ugandan capital Kampala killed 76 people watching the World Cup final on July 11.

Currently around 6,000 Ugandan and Burundian peacekeepers are protecting the government in Somalia. The planned strength of the force, which has long been under-manned as countries failed to meet their commitments, is 8,000 troops.

However, Jean Ping, the chairman of the AU commission, told reporters at an AU summit in Kampala that some nations were now ready to deploy soldiers.

'Guinea is ready to deploy troops to Somalia,' Ping told reporters. 'Its battalion is more than ready and waiting and even Djibouti is also ready to send its troops to Somalia.'

Ping said recent pledges by East African regional grouping IGAD meant the force would go beyond 10,000 troops, which he said would allow 'peace enforcement' rather than peace-keeping.

After the bombings, Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni said he wanted to raise the strength of the force to 20,000 and change the mandate to allow the peacekeepers to go after the insurgents.

The issue of Somalia has so far dominated the AU summit, which was supposed to be about maternal, infant and child health in Africa.

Somalia has been immersed in chaos since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

The current insurgency, which has claimed more than 20,000 lives, kicked off in early 2007, following Ethiopia's invasion to oust the ruling Islamist regime.