Fighting in Somalia's capital Mogadishu killed at least 12 people and wounded 17 others after Islamist insurgents attacked government forces and African Union (AU) peacekeepers.
The rebels launched overnight raids on bases around the city's strategic K4 junction, triggering gun battles and barrages of mortar shells that made residents cower indoors.
President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed's fragile UN-backed administration is facing a concerted campaign by insurgents who hit the AU's main military base in Mogadishu with twin suicide car bombs last week, killing 17 peacekeepers.
With its credibility increasingly in doubt, the government said it was planning a fresh offensive against the rebels - but the militants appeared to have attacked first. Witnesses said AU troops later fired shells at the capital's sprawling Bakara Market, which has long been an insurgent stronghold.
Western security agencies say the failed Horn of Africa state - which has been torn by civil war for the last 18 years - has become a haven for militants including foreign jihadists, who are using it to plot attacks in the region and beyond.
Fighting has killed more than 18,000 Somalis since the start of 2007 and driven another 1.5 million from their homes.
Reuters