Photo Story: Battle for Mogadishu escalates

GlobalPost
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The World

In Mogadishu there is no peace to keep.

The fighting that rages through Somalia's seaside capital is between the Islamist insurgents of Al Shabaab and the combined forces of the interim government and African Union peacekeepers, known as AMISOM.

Photographer Stuart Price is working with AMISOM and got behind the frontline of this ongoing battle to document the chaos that characterizes life in Somalia's capital. 

Here is what he found:


From the frontline bases soldiers from the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) keep a watchful eye over the no man's land toward Al Shabaab positions. (Stuart Price/AMISOM/GlobalPost)


Troops from Burundi man a heavy machine gun at one of their 10 bases across the city. (Stuart Price/AMISOM/GlobalPost)


A Ugandan soldier resupplies a tank guarding the ruining parliament building. (Stuart Price/AMISOM/GlobalPost)


Watching over the city from a machine gun nest in an AMISOM detachment. (Stuart Price/AMISOM/GlobalPost)


AMISOM soldiers prepare for another night defending their position against Al Shabaab attacks. (Stuart Price/AMISOM/GlobalPost)


The African Union force is better equipped and outguns the Al Shabaab insurgents who are mostly armed with assault rifles, machine guns, grenades and mortars. (Stuart Price/AMISOM/GlobalPost)


Watching over the city from a machine gun nest in an AMISOM detachment. (Stuart Price/AMISOM/GlobalPost)


A Ugandan soldier in Mogadishu. Ugandans make up the bulk of the 7,000 strong AMISOM force. (Stuart Price/AMISOM/GlobalPost)


A transitional government soldier takes aim behind sandbags. (Stuart Price/AMISOM/GlobalPost)


Transitional Federal Government soldiers defend a government position. (Stuart Price/AMISOM/GlobalPost)


Ugandan soldiers are deployed at more than a dozen AMISOM positions. AMISOM troops in six of Mogadishu's 16 districts. (Stuart Price/AMISOM/GlobalPost)


AMISOM troops prepare ammunition at a city base. (Stuart Price/AMISOM/GlobalPost)


Sunset over Mogadishu. (Stuart Price/AMISOM/GlobalPost)


 

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