22 Aug 2009
As the month of Ramadan begins, the Somali President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed calls on all the country's clashing parties to lay down their arms and observe a ceasefire.

He told the BBC that dialogue was the only alternative to attaining sustainable peace in war-torn Somalia and added that he was ready for dialogue at anytime.

His appeal comes as rebel forces early on Saturday -- the first day of the Holy month of Ramadan -- carried out attacks at a checkpoint outside the Somali capital Mogadishu, predicting more violence to come in the holy month, a Press TV correspondent reported.

Witnesses said that heavily armed militant fighters carried out a pre-dawn attack on government-manned Ex-Control Afgoye, a key checkpoint that connects the capital to the southern Shabelle region, leading to heavy gunfire that killed more than five people and injured a few others.

Somalia's Defense Minister Sheikh Yusuf Mohamed Siad said that government forces repelled the militant's attack, killing 'many of them'. Clashes have also erupted in the northern districts of Hawlwadag and Hodon, where at least four civilians were killed and more than 10 others sustained injuries.

Somalia has been without an effective government for more than 18 years.

presstv