By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN
Associated Press Writer
MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) -- Somali insurgents vowed on Wednesday to intensify their attacks during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, as the capital erupted in violence that forced residents to cower in their homes for hours.
Also, France´s Foreign Ministry said pirates off Somalia seized a sailboat carrying two French citizens and took them hostage. Wednesday´s hijacking is the ninth by Somali pirates since July 20, and occurred in the Gulf of Aden, which connects the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean and is one of the world´s busiest waterways. A Cabinet minister of the semiautonomous northeastern Somalia region of Puntland, Ahmed Said Awnur, said his government had received information about the hijacking but had no details.
In Somalia, citizens suffer near daily explosions of bloodshed, and thousands of civilians have been killed since Islamic fighters began an Iraq-style insurgency in December 2006, after they were driven from power in Mogadishu and much of the south.
"If we die while fasting for the sake of Allah, we will go to heaven,´´ a 26-year-old Islamic fighter, Abdi Yusuf, told The Associated Press by telephone. "So there is no reason why we shouldn´t intensify the fighting.´´
Ramadan began on Monday, and Wednesday´s violence killed at least four people, although the death toll could be higher, witnesses said.
Military spokesman Mohmoud Dhere declined to comment on casualties. But he criticized the insurgents for "destabilizing the country.´´
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