At least 50 people, including Ethiopian soldiers, Somali troops, Islamist rebels and civilians, have been killed in the recent clashes in the Somali capital of Mogadishu and the port city of Kismayo, said officials on Thursday.
At least 20 people were killed in the capital city of Mogadishu, where the fighting between the coalition of Ethiopian and government troops and the Islamist rebels entered a second day on Thursday.
Officials said that the fighting is taking place mainly in the northern part of the city, and added that at least "four foreign troops and 10 Somalis were killed on Wednesday".
Separately, at least 30 people were killed in two days of fierce fighting between Islamists and forces of the local administration in the port city of Kismayo, said officials. They added that the fighting that started in the northern neighborhoods has slowly spread to other parts of the city as well.
Somali forces have been battling Islamist militants ever since they ousted the Islamists from Mogadishu in December 2006 with the help of Ethiopian forces, who were called in to assist the weak transitional Somali government in its fight against the Islamists.
Somalia has not had a functioning government after the fall of the last government in 1991. It is estimated the fighting between the Islamist insurgents and the army coalition has killed thousands of Somalis and displaced hundreds of thousands more, mostly from Mogadishu.
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