Garowe Online (Garowe)
11 January 2009
Street fights and explosions in Somalia's dangerous capital Mogadishu killed at least 11 people Sunday, including three soldiers from Ethiopia, Radio Garowe reports.
Four civilians were killed overnight and 11 others wounded in Mogadishu's Yaaqshiid district when unknown assailants hurled hand grenades inside a crowded café.
"I was next door when I heard a big explosion, and when we came outside we saw dead bodies," said a witness.
Another witness, who did not wish to be named, told Radio Garowe: "People used to play cards there and they were warned before."
No group has claimed responsibility for the deadly bombing, but Islamist rebels have spearheading an anti-government insurgency in parts of Somalia since 2006.
Ethiopians killed
Three Ethiopian soldiers were killed after a rocket grenade hit their vehicle near the ex-pasta factory, the Ethiopian army's main base in north Mogadishu.
The army vehicle exploded and the attackers escaped, witnesses reported.
Separately, insurgents shelled army troops stationed at the ex-pasta factory with mortars but the fighting quickly spread out onto streets in Huriwa district.
At least five people - three Somali soldiers and two insurgents - were killed in the gunfight, local reports said.
Somalia has been wracked by violence since the early 1990s, but Ethiopia's 2006 invasion has ignited an Islamist rebellion.
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