22/08/08 (B461-B) Press TV / Plus de 92 victimes en Somalie / Over 92 civilians killed in Somalia (En Anglais – Info lecteur)

A new series of clashes between Somali government troops and Ethiopian forces has claimed the lives of at least 92 civilians in Mogadishu.

A Press TV correspondent in Mogadishu reported on Thursday that over 20 people were killed while attending prayers in the Abu Huraira Mosque.

Forty others lost their lives in different districts of north and south Mogadishu.

The fighting started when the presidential palace and Somali government bases were attacked. Hundreds of people were injured in the clashes.

In another attack, gunmen of the Mareehan clan attacked Calanley district in the city of Kismayu, killing more than 32 people and injuring over 50 others.

Also in another incident, an officer of World Health Organization (WHO) was seriously injured with a gunshot wound to the head following an argument with one of his guards in the town of Baardhere in the Gedo region.

Somalia has been without an effective central government since President Siad Barre was overthrown in 1991. In 2006, US-backed Ethiopian troops invaded the country in an attempt to back Somalia’s Transitional Federal Government.

Fighting between Ethiopian-backed government forces and insurgents has killed thousands of Somalis and displaced more than a million others.