Somalis wheel a man in a handcart after he was wounded in mortar shelling in the capital Mogadishu. (File photo)
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Al-Shabab fighters launched an attack on Somalia's transitional government forces in the southern district of Huruwa in the war ravaged capital.
An intense battle broke out after the attack with the two sides exchanging heavy gunfire and barrages of mortar shells.
Four civilians, all members of the same family, were killed after a mortar shell landed on their home. Four other civilians were also killed during the heavy shelling in the area.
Somali ambulance workers said they ferried the wounded to various hospitals in Mogadishu.
Omar Abdullah Ja'afar, a Somali military commander, confirmed the incident.
“Several al-Shabab militants attacked our positions today. However, we managed to repulse them. We could kill several al-Shabab members, including senior officials, during the Saturday clashes,” he said.
Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew the country's former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
Strategically located in the Horn of Africa, Somalia remains one of the countries generating the highest number of refugees and internally displaced persons in the world.