Bartamaha (Mogadishu): – At least 15 people have been killed and 30 others injured in heavy fighting in the Somali capital Mogadishu, the head of Mogadishu’s ambulance service said on Monday.

Fighting broke out late on Sunday when Islamist insurgent group al-Shababb attacked the strategic route linking the airport and presidential palace – a road protected by African Union peacekeepers.

Ali Muse, head of the ambulance service in Mogadishu, said: “Fifteen bodies have been recovered and 30 others were wounded in yesterday’s fighting.”

Al-Shabaab said it had killed eight Ugandan peacekeepers, a claim waved away by Major Barigye Ba-Hoku, spokesperson for the peacekeeping force known as AmiSom.

“We did not even have one peacekeeper injured,” he said.

Al-Shabaab and its allies are battling to oust the weak Western-backed government in an insurgency now almost three years old.

The al-Qaeda-linked rebels control most of south and central Somalia while the government is penned into a portion of Mogadishu that includes the airport, port and presidential palace. -

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Source:- Sapa-dpa

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