At least 16 people were killed and 15 wounded in heavy clashes in the Somali capital, witnesses said on Thursday, according to AP. Residents of Mogadishu said that Ethiopian troops and their Somali government allies had come under attack by Islamic insurgents in the south of the city, sparking mortar and artillery battles that killed six civilians and wounded ten. Two Ethiopian and two Somali soldiers were among the dead, witnesses said. Mohamed Haji, a resident who lives near the Ethiopian base in a football stadium in the south of the city, said insurgents had attacked the Ethiopians with rocket propelled grenades and mortars when they tried to leave their base. He saw two dead Ethiopian soldiers, he said. Another resident, Khadar Nuure, said she also saw two dead Ethiopian troops and another two dead Somali government troops. Shamso Sheikh Nor said that when the Ethiopians began returning mortar and artillery fire, three of her neighbors were killed and one was wounded when a shell landed on their house. Said Mohamud Dhore said three of his neighbors had also been killed when their house was shelled in a different neighborhood. Another three people were killed in a separate neighborhood. Two died when their house was hit by a mortar, and another was killed by stray gunfire, said Hassan Ahmed Rage. Resident Mahad Farah added, «we heard the gunfire. Mortars landed and we started to flee to a nearby concrete building. A mortar landed and killed two people who were also running beside me.» In the city's main Bakara market, businessman Usman Ga'al said that several mortars had landed and one person had died and five were wounded during the shelling. Dr. Dahir Dhere at Medina hospital said that 15 people had been brought for treatment in total. Thousands of Somalis were killed last year in fighting between Islamic insurgents and the shaky transitional government and its Ethiopian allies. The insurgents vowed to fight an Iraq-style insurgency after their brief hold on parts of southern Somalia was broken by Ethiopian troops in December 2005. Impoverished Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other.
