MOGADISHU, Jan 22: Ethiopian troops and Somali police opened fire on Mogadishu demonstrators on Monday, killing at least three people, a witness said. Protesters hurled stones and some fired back with assault rifles at the joint security forces, said a local journalist. At least five people were wounded.

The witness said Ethiopian troops returned to a livestock market in the city where an attack on an Ethiopian military convoy had triggered a heavy battle on Saturday.

“The Ethiopians used something like a bazooka to break down the gate of a house in the area, then they arrested two men inside,” the reporter said. “Locals began throwing stones at them, some shot rifles, and then the Ethiopians returned fire.”

“Three men were killed at the scene,” he said.

Hundreds of demonstrators chanted anti-Ethiopian slogans burned barricades of tyres in the streets and stoned vehicles carrying local journalists.

A Kenyan newspaper said a dozen suspected militants had been detained over the weekend trying to enter Kenya through the Lamu archipelago.

The Daily Nation report said one suspect held a United States passport, two had British passports and the others carried Syrian, Yemeni and Saudi Arabian passports.—Reuters