Ethiopian helicopter shot down by insurgents

By JERUSALEM POST STAFF
Insurgents shot an Ethiopian helicopter gunship out of the sky and mortar shells slammed into a hospital during the heaviest fighting in the Somali capital since the early 1990s, leaving corpses in the streets and wounding hundreds of civilians. On Friday, an Associated Press reporter saw an anti-aircraft missile hit an Ethiopian helicopter that had been bombing insurgent positions. "The helicopter looked like a ball of smoke and fire before crashing," said Mogadishu resident Ruqiya Shafi Muhyadin, who watched as the helicopter rolled over in the sky and went down near the airport. Dr. Mohamed Dhere, who spoke to the AP by telephone from an underground room, said three mortar shells hit Alhayat Hospital, wounding a doctor and a staff member.