Mogadishu, Jan 8 : At least 20 people were killed and more than 40 wounded when African Union peacekeeping forces and Islamist insurgents exchanged heavy fire here Thursday, officials said.

Most of the victims were civilians, Xinhua reported citing emergency officials.

The fighting started in the northern part of the Somali capital after militants detonated a bomb targeting the Somali Army chief. He survived the attack.

The Somali government and Islamist insurgents are locked in a bitter battle over the control of Mogadishu.(IANS)

Nairobi/Mogadishu, Dec 17 :Somali insurgent group al-Shabaab Thursday said it was banning the UN Mine Action agency from operating in Somalia.

Al-Shabaab, which is battling to topple the weak Western-backed government, said in a statement that Mine Action was paying the salaries of government forces and "surveying and signposting some of the most vital and sensitive areas" under insurgent control.

Somalia is awash with mines from earlier conflicts with Ethiopia.

Mogadishu, Nov 26 - A Canadian journalist and an Australian photographer freed after 15 months of captivity in Somalia were Thursday due to fly to Nairobi, the capital of neighbouring Kenya.

Canadian journalist Amanda Lindhout and Australian photographer Nigel Brennan were set free Wednesday night and stayed overnight in a Mogadishu hotel.

Mogadishu  - Somali insurgent group al-Shabaab has stoned a 29-year-old married woman to death for adultery, the second such execution this month, officials said.

Sheikh Ibrahim Sheikh Abdirahman, an al-Shabaab judge, also ordered the woman's sexual partner, and unmarried man, to receive one hundred lashes.

Hundreds of spectators watched the stoning late Tuesday in the village of Eelbon, southern Somalia.

Earlier this month a 33-year-old man was stoned to death for conducting an affair in the port town of Marka.

Al-Shabaab and its ally Hizbul Islam are battling the weak central government and control much of south and central Somalia.

Mogadishu  - Two Kenyans working at a printing shop in the Somali capital of Mogadishu were abducted by a group of masked gunmen, witnesses told the German Press Agency dpa Monday.

The two men - one a Muslim, the other a Christian - were forced to leave by the 12 gunmen late Sunday. "Nobody knows about their whereabouts," a neighbouring shopkeeper told dpa.

It was not clear if the abduction was a simply kidnapping or if there were political motives for it.

Mogadishu - The Somali insurgent group al-Shabaab has stoned a man to death for committing adultery in the port town of Marka, officials said.

"The 33-year-old man Abbas [Hussein Abdurahman] confessed his crime in front of the Islamic court, and today we have implemented his reward in front of the people in accordance with Islamic sharia," al-Shabaab official Sheikh Suldan Aala Mohamed told spectators at the execution late Friday.

Al-Shabaab and its ally Hizbul Islam are battling the weak central government and control much of south and central Somalia.

Mogadishu  - Clashes broke out between two allied Islamist insurgent groups in the Somali port town of Kismayo Thursday, residents of the town said.

Al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam have been working together to try and topple the fragile Western-backed government and between them they control much of south and central Somalia.

However, residents of Kismayo told German Press Agency that three people had died in clashes between the groups, which began early on Thursday and were still ongoing.

The reason for the battle was unclear.

Mogadishu  - Somalia's main insurgent group on Monday executed two men in the capital Mogadishu, saying they had been caught spying for the United States and the African Union.

Hundreds of people watched militants from the Islamist group al- Shabaab execute the pair by firing squad in a marketplace.

A commander for al-Shabaab in Mogadishu said that the two men had been spying for the US Central Intelligence Agency and the African Union peacekeeping force in the nation in the Horn of Africa.

Mogadishu  - At least one crew member was killed when Somali pirates tried to seize a ship in Mogadishu harbour, the African Union peacekeeping mission in Somalia (AMISOM) said Friday.

Two pirates skiffs boarded the Panama-flagged MV Barwaqo late Thursday as it approached the harbour, but police and peacekeepers managed to free the vessel, AMISOM spokesman Bariyge Bahuko said.

Mogadishu  - Somali Islamist insurgent group Al-Shabaab Thursday issued a list of demands it says must be met in order to secure the release of a French security advisor held since July.

Two French security advisors were seized from their hotel in the lawless capital Mogadishu on July 14, but one of them has since managed to escape.

France must withdraw anti-piracy patrols in the Gulf of Aden, stop military and political support for the Western-backed government and withdraw all its security advisors, al-Shabaab said in a statement.

Nairobi/Mogadishu  - Somali insurgents have dismissed an appeal for a ceasefire during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, saying they will continue their push to oust the Western-backed government.

Islamist insurgent group al-Shabaab and its ally Hizbul Islam have in recent months stepped up attempts to remove President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed, who came to power earlier this year as part of a United Nations-backed peace process.

Nairobi/Mogadishu  - Somali authorities have opened negotiations with the abductors of two French government advisors abducted Tuesday in Mogadishu, Defence Minister Mohamed Abdi Gandhi said Wednesday.

He told the French radio station RFI the abductors were "not Islamists, but criminals profiting from the situation in Mogadishu. They appear to want ransom money. This is not a political kidnapping."

Mogadishu - Over 20 people died in Somalia during fighting between Islamist insurgents and government forces Wednesday, including a dozen leaving evening prayers, witnesses said Thursday.

The stray shell that devastated a mosque in north Mogadishu late Wednesday evening was the worst single incident in a day of heavy clashes in north and south Mogadishu, where insurgent groups al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam are trying to oust President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.

Mogadishu - A Somali insurgent leader who the United States says is linked to al-Qaeda on Monday denied reports that he had been seriously injured in fierce fighting between his militia and a pro-government Islamist group.

Over 100 people died in fierce battles that broke out in the central Somali town of Wabho on Friday between the pro-government Ahlu Sunna Waljamea and Hizbul Islam, led by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys.

Mogadishu - The fourth journalist to have been killed this year in conflict-ridden Somalia died of bullet wounds sustained in late April, the National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) said on Tuesday.

Nur Muse Hussein, 56, was deliberately shot on April 20 as he covered fighting between insurgents and government forces in Central Somalia.

"Today is another unforgettable and sad day for the Somali journalists' community," said Omar Faruk Osman, NUSOJ Secretary General.

Mogadishu - Over 30 people died in the Somali capital of Mogadishu as government forces launched an attack to retake territory lost to Islamist insurgents in the last few weeks, reports said Saturday.

Witnesses said that government forces attacked insurgent positions in three different locations in north Mogadishu on Friday and that the warring parties exchanged mortar fire.

Mogadishu - Over 43,000 civilians have fled fierce fighting between insurgents and government forces in the Somali capital Mogadishu over the last 12 days, the United Nations refugee agency UNHCR said Wednesday.

Civilians have been caught in the crossfire as the warring parties battle with mortars and automatic weapons in the north of the city. Almost 200 have died and over 500 have been injured since the latest battles began.

Mogadishu - A senior leader of a Somali Islamist insurgent faction has defected to the government side with his militia, bringing a boost to embattled government forces.

Sheikh Yusuf Mohamed Siyad Indha Adde, who was the defence chief of the Alliance for the Re-liberation of Somalia and the leader of a faction of Hizbul Islam - one of the groups fighting the government - said Sunday he saw no reason to keep fighting.

"There is no reason to attack this government since it has decided to implement Islamic law," Indha Adde told reporters in Mogadishu on Sunday evening. "We decided to defend this government."

Mogadishu  - The Somali insurgent group al-Shabaab took control of Jowhar, a key strategic town north of Mogadishu, on Sunday after two hours of fierce fighting, witnesses and town elders said.

"There was fierce fighting at Jowhar's outskirts before al-Shabaab entered Jowhar," Mo'alim Muhidin, an elder in Jowhar, told the German News Agency dpa. "After that, they took full control, including the administration's bases, like the police station."

"They were equipped with machine guns and battle wagons and are now patrolling the streets," he added.

Mogadishu - Battles between pro-government forces and Islamist insurgents pushing to topple Somalia's fragile transitional government continued for an eighth day Thursday, in Mogadishu streets abandoned by terrified civilians.

Witnesses told Radio Shabelle that at least three people had been killed and seven wounded in north Mogadishu as insurgents and government forces exchanged fire.

The insurgents also laid siege to the presidential palace, firing shells at the building.