At least 12 people were killed and scores wounded in clashes between Somalia's rebels and pro-government militias in the latest fighting in the anarchic Horn of Africa country, witnesses and militia said on Friday. President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's government is struggling against a powerful insurgency and trying to woo other rebels over to his administration, seen by many as the best hope to restore peace after 18 years of war.
Al Shabaab fighters and those of a group loyal to the government exchanged mortar and anti-aircraft fire late on Thursday along an industrial road in the Somali capital, residents said. "The stubborn opposition attacked our fighters and the government soldiers on our side," Sheikh Abdirahim Isse Adow, a spokesman for the pro-government Islamic Courts Union, told Reuters by telephone. "We killed eight of them and injured 30 others in one spot. I am sure more died. We also captured an anti-aircraft missile mounted on a battle wagon from them," he said.