Street battles shake Somali capital

At least 21 people have been killed and scores of others injured in a series of street battles in Mogadishu, the capital of Somalia, sources say. Shells fired by African Union (AU) peacekeepers hit Bakara market, in central Mogadishu, during the fighting, Al Jazeera has learned. "Heavy artillery shelling is ongoing and has left 70 people wounded", Al Jazeera's Jama Nur reported from Mogadishu. Ba-Hoku Baridgye, a spokesman for the AU mission, said one of its soldiers had died in the fighting, while they killed about 25 Somali fighters. "We killed around 25 Islamist fighters in Hodan and Holwadag districts today and we lost one soldier while two others were injured," he told AFP.