Fighting Postpones Kismayu Pullout

MOGADISHU, Somalia — U.S. troops Monday postponed a pullout from Kismayu after at least seven Somalis were killed in fighting in the southern city and an Irish nurse was shot to death in an ambush on a relief convoy.

The violence came on the day Gen. Cevik Bir of Turkey arrived to prepare to assume command of the U.S.-led military coalition that has secured Somalia since December, allowing relief shipments to reach starving millions. The United Nations is expected to take control of the operation within two months.

Several aid workers have been killed in Somalia despite the presence of 32,500 foreign troops. The latest was 23-year-old Valerie Place, who, hours before her death in a roadside ambush, had given heavyweight boxing champion Riddick Bowe a tour of a food station in the capital.

The Kismayu fighting was the most serious in Somalia in weeks. It came a day before about 1,000 American troops were to transfer command of the security operation in Kismayu to Belgian forces and start to head home.

U.S. and Belgian troops stationed in the area were not involved in the fighting that killed seven Somalis and wounded 21, Marine Col. Fred Peck, the U.S. military spokesman in Somalia, said.