Ethiopian troops commit atrocities in Somalia - Amnesty

Nairobi: Amnesty International said that Ethiopian troops who support Somalia's government are killing civilians, slitting people's throats and gang-raping women.

The human rights group called on the international community to halt the bloodshed. It released a report on Tuesday detailing indiscriminate killing in the Horn of Africa nation, and singling out Ethiopian troops for some of the worst atrocities.

Ethiopia's government said the report was "categorically wrong."

Amnesty says it has scores of reports of killings by Ethiopian troops. In one case, "a young child's throat was slit by Ethiopian soldiers in front of the child's mother," the report says.

"It's totally unfounded," Ethiopia's Information Minister Berhanu Hailu said in Addis Ababa. "Normally when they report they do not balance it out. They have to go and see the reality for themselves. They shouldn't report from abroad saying this is happening."

Ethiopian officials denied an Amnesty report last month that accused its troops of "targeted killing of civilians," particularly in a raid on Al Hidaya Mosque in which 21 people died.

Amnesty's report says 6,000 civilians were reported killed in Mogadishu in last year and more than 600,000 forced from their homes.