Somali militants firing vehicle-mounted anti-aircraft guns clashed with African Union forces for a second night in Mogadishu, killing at least nine people including women and children, an ambulance official said on Sunday.
African Union (AU) troops launched a new offensive against al Shabaab on Friday, seizing rebel positions just outside the capital for the first time.
The insurgents, however, have launched counter attacks. On Saturday night they struck a government military checkpoint known as 'Ex-control' in a north-west suburb of the coastal city. Soldiers with the AU's AMISOM force repelled the assault, an AMISOM spokesman said.
Caught in the crossfire were Somalis seeking refuge in camps for displaced people, victims already of the anarchic country's two-decade civil war, or famine.
"At least nine displaced people, mostly women and children died in the camps near the former American embassy on Friday and Saturday night," Ali Musa, co-ordinator of the city's ambulance services, told Reuters.
Ex-control is a strategically important checkpoint. On the outskirts of Mogadishu, it is the final government-controlled roadblock on the road that bends south to Afgoye, a rebel stronghold about 30 km (17 miles) from the capital.
"These (two) nights al Shabaab came close with anti-craft guns mounted on lorries, but we repulsed them," Ndayiragije Come, spokesman for the AU's Burundian contingent, said. Camp resident Mohamed Sidow buried his mother on Sunday morning in a shallow grave, hours after a stray round killed her.
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