Hiiraan Online

Somali men carry a victim of a mortar attack into a local hospital in Mogadishu. (File photo)

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Press TV
Wednesday, March 07, 2012

At least seven civilians have been killed after mortar shells struck a residential area in the war-ravaged Somali capital of Mogadishu, Press TV reports.

Al-Shabab fighters launched a surprise attack on Somalia's transitional government forces in Mogadishu's southern neighborhood of Hodan late on Tuesday.

Fierce clashes broke out in the aftermath of the attacks with the two sides exchanging heavy gunfire and barrages of mortar shells.

Seven civilians, all members of the same family, were killed after a mortar shell landed on their home. A three-year-old child was among the casualties.

Somalia has been without an effective central government and has descended into chaos since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

The weak Western-backed transitional government in Mogadishu has been battling al-Shabab militants for the past five years.

Somalia is one of the countries generating the highest number of refugees and internally displaced people in the world.