MOGADISHU — A day before the start of the holy fasting of Ramadan in the Horn of Africa country, fighting raged in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Friday, August 21, killing at least 22 people.
"We have seen 17 dead people and taken 40 others to hospitals," senior ambulance official Ali Musa told Reuters.
Five people were also killed when a mortar shell hit a busy restaurant in Mogadishu’s sprawling Bakara Market.
The fighting erupted around the city’s strategic K4 junction after militants from Al-Shebab group launched a pre-dawn attack against on government troops and African peacekeepers.
A police commander said the militants attacked their positions, sparking a fire exchange that also wounded 22 civilians.
"There were clashes between the Somali forces and the insurgents. They attacked our base near Taleh and we killed several of them," Hussein Mohamed Ali told Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Fighting has been raging across central and southern Somalia as pro-government militia try to seize towns from Al-Shebab and its Hizbul Islam allied militia.
At least 33 people were killed at Bula Burde in the southern Hiran region on Thursday, and 12 more died when Al-Shebab militants drove pro-government gunmen out of Bulahawa.
Somalia has sunk into deadly violence after militants of Al-Shebab and Hizbul Islam launched a deadly offensive in May against the internationally-backed government of President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
Hundreds of civilians are believed to have been killed and wounded, according to the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
More than 200,000 people have also been displaced since then.
End Item/ 129