Heavy Shelling in Mogadishu Dead 7 people

At least 11 people, among them five civilians, were killed in Mogadishu Tuesday after government forces backed by African peacekeepers attacked the barracks of Islamist rebels, witnesses said.

The fighting took place in Holwadag and Bondhere districts where government forces attacked trenches held by Al Shebab insurgents.

"We have killed six of the children they misled into fighting for them and we are continuing to take control of the trenches they use to attack us," the acting chief of the Somali army Major General Abdikarim Dhegobadan told reporters.
Witnesses said five civilians were killed in Bondhere after they were caught in the crossfire.

"I saw the dead bodies of five civilians, including two women, who were hit by stray bullets," Muse Adan, a witness told AFP.
Shebab officials were not available for comment.
Medical sources said a further 10 people, all of them civilians, were injured in the fighting.

Clashes between the Shebab and government forces backed by 9,000 Ugandan and Burundian troops from the African Union Mission (AMISOM) occur on an almost daily basis in the Somali capital and civilians are often the main victims.

The latest fighting comes one month after government forces launched a big offensive to try to take back several regions of south and central Somalia controlled by the Al Qaeda-inspired Shebab.

At the end of February AMISOM troops dislodged the Shebab from two key positions in the north of the capital. Source