Nearly 10 people have been killed and more than fifty others wounded in exchange of heavy shelling and gunfire between insurgent groups and African Union peacekeeping forces in the Somali capital Mogadishu, witnesses and health officials said Tuesday.

"A mortar shell hit near a clinic in Zobe area where people were waiting outside it and six of them were killed and many others were wounded," Mohamed Omar, a resident, told Xinhua.

Other witnesses gave the same figure and added that the most of the wounded sustained severe injuries and were immediately rushed to the hospital by local voluntary ambulance service.

Four others were killed after a shell landed near the vegetables section of the main Bakara market in Mogadishu while several others were wounded in the blast.

Health officials at the Medina hospital said that nearly fifty wounded civilians were admitted to the hospital for treatment for injuries sustained from the shelling and starry bullets.

(Xinhua New Agency February 24, 2009)