Seventy-four fighters belonging to the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) and Al-Shabaab have been killed by the Somali government soldiers. The fighters were slain by the Somali troops and their Ethiopian allies in the Somali military which has a hard time maintaining order in the war-battered country. "Thirteen top leaders of the Union of Islamic Courts and Al-Shabaab" and an aid to the fighters who held 'Canadian citizenship' were among those killed in the operation in central Somalia which started on Monday, Somalia's Defense Ministry said in a statement. The fighters' spokesmen Sheikh Abdirahim Issa Addow, however, dismissed the statement as a 'fabrication' saying "only seven fighters were killed and nine others wounded in the clashes." He also said the Ethiopian troops have not made mention of the many soldiers and hardware they lost during the fighters' attacks. Yesterday, UIC fighters said they had forced a group of recently-arrived Ethiopian soldiers into a retreat from Somalia. Reporting on the incident, a Press TV correspondent said that, during the Thursday raid, the fighters slaughtered 33 of the soldiers and destroyed three of their military vehicles after the troops crossed the common border to join the Somali military. The fighters have vowed to force all the Ethiopian forces out of Somalia.
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