8 seconds ago 2009-11-08T17:15:05-08:00
MOGADISHU (AFP) – Clashes broke out Wednesday in the Somali capital Mogadishu between government forces and insurgents, killing at least three people, witnesses said.
The fighting was in a southern district near Maka al-Mukarama road but it was not immediately clear what prompted the clashes between members of the Al Qaeda-inspired Shebab and government forces backed by African Union peacekeepers.
"Two civilians and a member of a Somali militia combatting the government were killed in the clashes," Mukhtar Abdi Ismail, a local resident, told AFP.
"I also saw six wounded people but the artillery fire from the African Union troops is likely to have hurt more," he said.
Other witnesses in the area gave the same death toll.
On October 22, an insurgent attack on the airport when President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed was about to take off sparked an exchange of fire that left at least 21 civilians dead.
Many of the victims died in the African Union's retaliatory fire.
