Mogadishu, (Xinhua) Heavy fighting between Somali government forces and insurgents have left at least two people dead and eight wounded including two children after shells landed in different neighbourhoods in the south and north of the Somali capital, witnesses said.
“Two men were killed when a shell fell onto the outdoor bar where they were having tea,” said Jeilani Hassan, a taxi driver who took two of the wounded to Keysaney Hospital in the north of the city Tuesday. “Six people were wounded by the shell.”
Residents say another shell hit a house in Shirkole neighbourhood in the south of the city wounding two children.
“I saw two wounded children being carried by their parents to a nearby clinic,” said resident Bile Omar. “We do not know where the shells are coming from.”
Dozens of heavily armed insurgents attacked Hawlwadag police station in Mogadishu with machine guns, rocket propelled grenades and bombs, residents said.
Heavy artillery was also used in the fighting and the sound of explosions could be heard as stray shells and bullets from the fighting hit a number of neighbourhoods in the restive city.
Somali government officials, who do not usually speak to the media on security matters, were not immediately available for comment.
The fighting comes after days of lull in Mogadishu as most of the Somali security forces guarding government officials are currently in the southern Somali town of Baidoa, the seat of the transitional federal Somali parliament, for crucial sessions to solve growing disagreements between Somali President Abdullahi Yusuf and Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi.
Somalia has not had a stable government since the overthrow of the late ruler Mohamed Siyad Barre in 1991.