Sunday, October 03, 2010
The clashes broke on Saturday when al-Shabab and Hizbul Islam fighters attacked positions of Somali government forces in the northern districts of Hodon and Hawlwadag.
The pro-government forces, backed by African Union troops, fired salvos of mortars at the crowded Bakara market, which claimed the lives of 11 people and left 14 others injured, the Press TV correspondent in Mogadishu reported.
Ali Muse Sheikh of the Mogadishu Ambulance Services said paramedics are assisting the wounded civilians.
Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.
Extreme violence is now a part of daily existence and the lives of Somalis continue to be blighted by a catastrophic level of daily brutality.
Over the past two decades, up to one million people have lost their lives in the fighting between rival factions and due to famine and disease.
The worsening security situation has made it difficult, if not impossible, for relief workers to access the needy.
There are more than 1.4 million internally displaced people (IDPs) in Somalia. More than 300,000 IDPs are sheltering in Mogadishu alone.
Most of the displaced live in poor and degrading conditions on makeshift sites in southern and central Somalia, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
In addition, some 560,000 Somalis live as refugees in Kenya, Yemen, Ethiopia, and other neighboring countries.
MP/HGL
Source: PressTV