Street Battles In Somalian Capital Leave 11 Dead - Witnesses

[Hiiraan boy]

MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP)--Street battles between Ethiopian troops, backing Somalia's fragile government, and insurgents in the Somali capital left at least 11 people dead and dozens others injured, eyewitnesses and health officials said Wednesday.

Late Tuesday's fighting took place in northern and southern neighborhoods of Mogadishu, but witnesses said that it could be heard kilometers away from the scene of fighting, with some tank shells that Ethiopian troops fired in southern Mogadishu landing in the capital's west.

It's unclear what started the overnight fighting that lasted about four hours. Early Wednesday, Mogadishu was calm, with hospitals reporting a slow but steady flow of injured arriving for treatment.

"Tuesday night's fighting exceeded in its intensity the recent fighting in the Mogadishu," said Mohamed Jumale, a resident of the southern Mogadishu neighborhood of Ali Kamin.

"I saw three bodies of the same family lying in a partly destroyed home after a missile crashed into their home," said Hassan Abdi Saleh.

"Three others sustained light injuries." Abdiyo Mohamud Siyad, who lives in the Tawfiq area of the capital's south, said several shells hit her neighborhood, killing four people and injuring five others.

An Associated Press cameraman saw the bodies of four other civilians in a house near his, which was destroyed by a mortar.

Dahir Dhere, director of Medina hospital, said 15 people wounded in the overnight fighting were brought to the hospital for treatment as another six injured people arrived for treatment.

The Somali Red Crescent Society reported that 12 injured civilians were taken to Keysaney Hospital, which the group helps manage.

In the overnight fighting, Ethiopian troops fired dozens of tank shells into insurgent positions in Tawfiq, from the hilltop presidential palace, said an elder of the capital's dominant clan. Some of the shells hit areas in northern and western Mogadishu, said Hussein Farah Siyad, a Hawiye elder. Siyad compiles a casualty and damage report for the clan whenever there is fighting.

He said he had no casualty figures at the moment.

Somali troops, backed by Ethiopian forces ousted the country's Islamist movement in December from Mogadishu and its strongholds. Remnants of the Islamist group have vowed to wage an Iraq-style insurgency and the capital has the scene of waves of violence. The most deadly began in late March and saw hundreds of people killed, most them civilians.

Diplomats have said, though, that also involved in the violence are clan militias that aren't necessarily linked to the Islamist insurgents. Clan elders and Ethiopian military officials have negotiated truces in the past but these have not held for long.

Somalia has not had an effective national government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another, throwing the country into anarchy.

The transitional government was formed in 2004 with U.N. help, but has struggled to maintain control over the country.