17 dead in Somalia market attack

Mogadishu: At least 17 people have died in Mogadishu from mortar strikes on the city's main market as hospitals struggled to cope with the wounded.

Scores of civilians were hurt at the main Bakara Market when government troops battled Islamic insurgents who fired mortars into the market.

President Abdullahi Yusuf was meeting Ethiopian Foreign Minister Seyoum Mesfin at the presidential palace – from where troops were firing – at the time of the attack, but no one there was hurt.

Residents said Ethiopian soldiers guarding Yusuf then began launching shells into Bakara in the city below.