Five dead, scores injured in Mogadishu shelling duel

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Shelling which hit mainly residential areas in the insurgent- held Heliwaa district in the northwest of Mogadishu killed at least five civilians, according to residents and local media.

"So far we have taken to hospitals 51 wounded people and we think that the figure may raise because the ambulances are still picking injured people from far neighborhoods in the city," Ali Muse, head of a local emergency service told Xinhua.

The latest flare up of fighting comes after weeks of war of words between the Somali government which vowed it will "mob up" insurgents from the Horn of African country during the year while the Islamist insurgents pledged to "finish off" government control from the capital. Meanwhile, African Union peacekeeping forces in Mogadishu on Sunday presented to the media a young man who they said was captured as he fought alongside Islamist rebels of Al Shabaab.

The man, who lost one of his legs in the fighting, will be handed over to the Somali government which is fighting a deadly insurgency by the hard-line Islamist rebel movement of Al Shabaab. The group, considered a terrorist entity with links to Al Qaeda, controls much of south and center of Somalia and wants to establish an Islamic state in war torn Somalia after overthrowing the weak but internationally recognized Somali government from power.

Source: Africa World News