By MOHAMED OLAD HASSAN
The fighting started after an insurgent attack on an Ethiopian military base, said Abdi Wali, a resident in the area.
"Shells landed on a residential area and a small vegetable and fruits market," said Wali, who said he saw 12 corpses.
A doctor at Daynile Hospital said about 20 wounded people, including women and children, had been admitted. He did not want his name published for fear of reprisals.
Somalia has been without an effective government since 1991, when warlords overthrew a dictatorship and then turned on one another. The transitional government, formed in 2004, relies on Ethiopian troops for protection but Islamic insurgents have gained steady power and launch near-daily attacks.
The Ethiopians are pulling out their troops by the end of this month, which could leave a power vacuum.
Civilians have taken the brunt of the violence surrounding the insurgency, with thousands killed or maimed by mortar shells, machine-gun crossfire and grenades. The United Nations says there are about 300,000 acutely malnourished children in Somalia, but attacks and kidnappings of aid workers have shut down many humanitarian projects.
Somalia has urged the United Nations to send a peacekeeping force, which the U.N. Security Council said would be possible if the country can improve its security situation.
The lawlessness, meanwhile, has allowed piracy to flourish off the coast, with bandits in speed boats launching attacks on foreign shipping, bringing in about $30 million in ransom this year alone.
The United States worries Somalia could be a terrorist breeding ground, and accuses a faction known as al-Shabab — "The Youth" — of harboring the al-Qaida-linked terrorists who allegedly blew up the U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998.
Source: AP, Dec. 05, 2008