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Mogadishu, (Insidesomalia.org) a convoy of Ethiopian army trucks came under fire in central Somalia Wednesday as insurgents sought to expand their guerrilla attacks to the remote countryside.
The fighting sparked near Halgan village in Hiran region after a 21-truck Ethiopian convoy was attacked by heavily-armed Somali rebels, locals reported.
The Ethiopian contingent arrived in Bulo Burte town four days earlier where they temporarily set camp, but drove northwest towards Halgan village early this morning.
Casualty reports could not be confirmed, but the intense fighting lasted for at least. two hours
"There was a lot of smoke in the air after an [Ethiopian] army truck was burned," one eyewitness told Garowe Online, adding: "I saw many dead bodies [on both sides]."
Ethiopian army reinforcements near the Somali-Ethiopia border were dispatched towards Halgan later today, according to local military contacts.
In Baidoa, the seat of Somalia's interim parliament, two Ethiopian soldiers were shot and killed by two Somali gunmen, witnesses said.
The soldiers were killed in a sneak attack inside a crowded Baidoa market, a situation that helped the killers evade capture.
Subsequent gunfire opened by Somali-Ethiopian soldiers who rushed to the scene killed a female market trader named Saynab, who died from gunshot wounds to the head and stomach, traders said.
Several people were detained by security forces for questioning.
Somalia's insurgents have waged a relentless guerrilla war since January 2007 when Ethiopian troops helped the weak interim government dislodge Islamists from power in the capital, Mogadishu.
While most of the fighting has been concentrated in Mogadishu, insurgents have conducted frequent attacks in the countryside, especially in Baidoa and parts of Hiran region in recent months.
Thousands of civilians have died during the ongoing war and hundreds of thousands more forced to flee, creating what UN officials consider Africa's worst humanitarian crisis.
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