20111204
Press TV
At least 25 people have been killed and scores others wounded in a new wave of violence that rocked different parts of war-torn Somalia, Press TV reports.

As many as 12 people, including five government soldiers, died in the capital Mogadishu's northern neighborhoods of Yaqshid and Hiliwa on Saturday as fierce clashes broke out between al-Shabab militants and Somalia's transitional government forces.

Meanwhile, seven civilians, among them three women, were killed after mortar shells landed in the city's neighborhoods of SOS, Shalamo-Wayeel, Ex-Control Balad, Ramadhan Hotel, and Industrial Street.

The mortar attacks had been launched in response to al-Shabab's attacks on military bases in the same areas.

“Several militants attacked our positions along the Ex-Control Balad Junction today, but we repulsed them. We killed several al-Shabab fighters including their senior officials,” said Omar Abdullah Ja'afar, a Somali military commander.

Ambulance workers said they took 10 wounded people to various hospitals in Mogadishu.

Meanwhile, six people were killed and 15 others wounded after a truck carrying Somali government troops stumbled on a landmine near Mother and Child Hospital in the southern district of Banadir.

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

Strategically located in the Horn of Africa, Somalia remains one of the countries generating the highest number of refugees and internally-displaced people in the world.