Medical personnel at Medina Hospital in Mogadishu, Somalia, attend a child wounded by a mortar shell Monday, July 19, 2010.
At least 14 people have been killed and 30 others injured in fresh clashes between government forces and al-Shabab fighters in the Somali capital, Mogadishu.
The victims were civilians caught in the crossfire in gun battle and exchange of mortar fire between Somali troops and al-Shabab fighters in the capital city on Thursday, a Press TV correspondent reported.
An aid group declared on Thursday that civilians in Mogadishu are bearing the brunt of the constant fighting between fighters and government troops.
“A very high proportion of civilians, among them large numbers of women and young children, are bearing the brunt of ongoing extreme warfare” in Mogadishu, Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF – Doctors Without Borders) said.
Many suffered “catastrophic injuries,” the group said.
Reports suggest that al-Shabab and Hizbul Islam fighters control 80 percent of the country while the Western-backed government controls the remaining 20 percent with the help of the Ugandan-led African Union force.
Somalia has been in a mire of civil war for years as it has not had a functioning national government since the overthrow of the country’s dictator, Mohamed Siad Barre, in 1991.
Source: Press TV