At least 13 people were killed and scores wounded as Islamist rebels attacked police and African Union peacekeepers today in the heaviest fighting in the Somali capital for months.
Both sides fired heavy machine guns and artillery, witnesses said, and the rebels unleashed volleys of mortar bombs at the hill-top Villa Somalia presidential palace.
"A mother and her baby died after a shell landed on their house," one resident told Reuters.
At least 11 other civilians were killed and workers at the main Madena Hospital said about 45 wounded had been admitted.
More than 16,000 civilians have been killed in the two-year-old insurgency, one million people have been forced from their homes, more than a third of the population depend on aid, and large parts of Mogadishu lie empty and destroyed.
The Islamist group al Shabaab said it will mount more attacks on the AU troops after killing at least 11 Burundian soldiers on Sunday.
Reuters