Somali rebels kill at least 9 peacekeepers

Islamist rebels armed with mortars and machine guns attacked African Union forces in Somalia's capital Mogadishu overnight, sparking a battle that killed at least nine people. The al-Shabaab militants, who are allied to al-Qaeda, were forced out of most of the city last year but have kept up sporadic bomb and suicide attacks. Witnesses said shelling from the fighting hit two houses, killing at least seven civilians, four of them from one family. "A big shell landed on a house made of iron sheets. The father, mother and their two sons died, only two children survived with injuries," said local resident Abdi Gaas. "Another shell landed on a nearby house. A mother and her son died. The fragments of the shell killed a boy in another house, we are now burying seven people," he added. No one was immediately available to comment from al-Shabaab.The rebel group has waged a bloody five-year campaign to topple Somalia's Western-backed government and impose its harsh interpretation of sharia law. The rebels continue to hold swathes of central and southern Somalia but are being squeezed out of some areas by Kenyan and Ethiopian troops, which have launched incursions inside Somalia in support of the beleaguered government. Somalia has been mired in chaos since warlords toppled dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. The overnight fighting took place in Mogadishu's northern Daynile district, the rebels' last position after they withdrew from the capital last year, under pressure from AMISOM and Somali government troops. Daynile has been the scene of some of the heaviest fighting in Mogadishu. In October, the AU said it had lost 10 Burundian peacekeepers in fighting there, but witnesses said they saw a significantly higher number of bodies. The African troops are keen to keep their hold on the district to help them launch an offensive against the nearby rebel strongholds of Elasha, Lafole and Afgoye.