Mogadishu fighting leaves six dead

Fighting continues between Islamist rebels and the Somali Transitional Federal Government in Somalia’s capital, Mogadishu.

Rebels from the Al Shabaab group and TFG troops exchanged gun fire and artillery shelling, in a wave of fighting that has eclipsed the East African nation.

Medics have seen 31 wounded and six bodies.

[Ali Musa, Co-ordinator of Ambulance Services in Mogadishu] (Somali):
"We have taken thirty one wounded civilians from various parts of Mogadishu especially in Bakara market to the hospitals also we saw 6 dead bodies in that areas."

Since the start of 2007, violence in drought-ravaged Somalia has killed at least 19 thousand civilians and driven a further 1.5 million from their homes. This has helped to trigger one of the world’s most acute humanitarian emergencies.

Somali has had no effective government for 19 years. Western security agencies say the country has become a safe spot for Islamist militants, who are using it to plot attacks across the region and beyond.