20100418
press tv

Two separate incidents in the Somali capital Mogadishu have claimed the lives of 10 people and left another 17 injured.

Officials and medics said four security personnel and two civilians were killed after a roadside bomb was detonated near a police station, AFP reported.

"A roadside bomb planted near a police station was detonated after some security forces gathered in the area. We are still investigating the incident, which occurred in a government-controlled zone", security officer Col. Ahmed Gaamey said.

The head of the city's ambulance service, Ali Muse, said four people were killed and 17 others were injured in brief clashes that broke out between government forces and al-Shabab fighters in southern Mogadishu's Hodan district.

War-battered Mogadishu has been the scene of deadly civil strife since the collapse of the country's central government in 1991.

During the 2006-2009 Ethiopian invasion of Somalia, thousands of civilians died and many others fled to neighboring Kenya.