MOGADISHU, April 21: The bodies of nine Islamic clerics were found in and around a mosque in the Somali capital on Monday, with residents saying they were shot by Ethiopian forces during weekend clashes with Islamist fighters.

Six of the corpses lay inside the Al-Hidaya Mosque in northern Mogadishu and three outside. Their discovery brought the death toll from two days of clashes to 56.

“They were innocent preachers who were shot dead by the Ethiopian forces,” said Farah Fargan, a resident who helped collect the bodies.

Witness Sheikh Mohamed Muse said the Ethiopian troops also arrested 21 boys who had taken refuge in the mosque during the fighting.

“What they did was a gross humanitarian violation. They shot innocent clerics, I’m sure God will punish them,” Muse said.

Mogadishu’s heaviest fighting in two months erupted on Saturday between Islamist insurgents and Somali government troops backed by Ethiopian forces.

Ethiopian troops came to the rescue of Somalia’s embattled transitional government in late 2006 to oust an Islamist militia which had taken control of large parts of the restive Horn of Africa country.

Islamist fighters have since waged a guerilla war against the government, their Ethiopian allies and African Union peacekeepers, with civilians often caught in the ensuing crossfire.

—AFP