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Seven killed in Mogadishu clashes

24 December 2010 04:26 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. At least seven people have been killed and 13 others injured after clashes erupted between forces of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) and al-Shabab fighters, APA reports quoting Press TV.

The fighting took place in Mogadishu on Thursday afternoon when al-Shabab fighters attacked a military base where Burundi and Ugandan soldiers under AMISOM are stationed, a Press TV correspondent reported.

A fierce firefight broke out in the aftermath of the ambush. Thirteen people suffered grave injuries in the clashes.

In a recent report, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) stated that hundreds of civilians have been injured in fighting in Somalia in recent months.

The Geneva-based humanitarian institution said that a total of 5,000 patients with war injuries, including 1,900 women and children, were admitted to Mogadishu’s Keysaney and Medina hospitals from January through September.

Compared to last year, it is an increase of 25 percent in the total number of war casualties and 72 percent in the number of war-wounded women and children admitted to the hospitals.

Some 4,000 patients with war injuries, among them 1,100 women and children, were taken to Mogadishu’s two referral hospitals in 2009.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

Over the past two decades, up to one million people have lost their lives in fighting between rival factions and due to famine and disease.