Somali people wait for a vehicle at Medina Hospital

Mogadishu, Somalila, 1 March 2008 - At least 11 people were killed in heavy clashes Saturday between Ethiopian forces and Somali Islamist insurgents in the capital Mogadishu, witnesses said.

Insurgents ambushed government forces in a southern Mogadishu district, prompting Ethiopian troops to intervene, but they were attacked enroute by the Islamists and fierce fighting ensued.

In total, two government soldiers, six civilians and three insurgents were killed in the clashes that lasted up to dusk, witnesses said.

Hospital sources said more than 30 people were wounded in the fighting and were receiving treatment at the capital's Madina hospital.

"The insurgents carried three of their dead and were chanting Allahu Akbar," said local resident Ahmed Shekh Adbullahi, adding that the Ethiopian troops used heavy weapons, including tanks to repel their attackers.

The civilians were killed when shells landed on their houses near the notoriously dangerous Bakara market in southern Mogadishu, another resident told AFP.

Islamist militants have staged regular attacks against government forces and their allies from the Ethiopian military and African Union peacekeepers in Mogadishu since their movement was ousted in December 2006.

The Horn of African nation plunged plunged into internecine fighting with the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and has defied several attempts at restoring stability.

Source: AFP