Civilians caught in Somalia fighting

Artillery and mortar shells rained down on Somalia’s capital Saturday, killing and wounding scores of civilians as government and Ethiopian troops tried to quash Islamist insurgents.

The offensive, which started Thursday, has sparked the heaviest fighting in Mogadishu since the early 1990s. On Friday, insurgents shot down an Ethiopian helicopter gunship and mortar shells slammed into a hospital, leaving bodies piled in the streets and wounding hundreds of people.

The International Committee of the Red Cross said dozens of people had been killed since Thursday and more than 220 injured, most of them civilians with bullet, grenade and other wounds. The fighting is so severe and widespread that bodies were not being picked up or tallied. Hospitals were overwhelmed, with patients sleeping on floors.

Ethiopia says its forces have killed more than 200 insurgents, believed to be linked to the ousted Islamic Courts Union, since the assault started.

Somalian presidential spokesman Hussein Mohamoud Hussein on Saturday blamed the violence on foreign terrorists, saying Al Qaeda had sent fighters to battle government and allied troops.