At least 20 people, including 11 insurgents, were killed on Friday in fighting pitting Islamist rebels against Somali government and Ethiopian forces in the capital Mogadishu, residents said. The insurgents who already control large parts of the country and who have been closing in on Mogadishu attacked the house of a local official, Wadajir district commissioner Ahmed Daci, triggering clashes with Somali troops.
"I counted eight bodies of dead insurgents in one place and three others in another location near the house of the commissioner," local resident Mohamed Abdirisak said. Other residents provided the same toll.
Daci spoke to the press shortly after the incident and claimed that 17 insurgents were killed, although the higher death toll could not immediately be confirmed by independent sources. "They attacked the house of the Wadajir district commissioner early this morning and we killed 17 of them," he said. A police spokesman confirmed the attack and said that the insurgents suffered heavy losses but did not give an exact number.
Insurgents also clashed with Ethiopian forces in several southern Mogadishu neighbourhoods, claiming nine civilian lives and bringing the day's death toll to at least 20, residents said. "Five children died after a heavy artillery shell hit them as they were playing football in Jungal area," said local resident Mohamed Said. Another resident, Abdinasir Moalim Ilkey, said clashes around Towfiq area claimed the lives of four civilians and wounded seven others.