Artillery shells killed at least 20 people in the Somali capital Mogadishu after rebels fired mortar bombs at the presidential palace and guards there returned fire.Heavy fighting regularly rocks the port city, where the Western-backed government controls little more than the palace, the airport, sea port and a few streets in between. Residents said Islamist rebels opened fire on the hilltop Villa Somalia palace, prompting a volley of shells in return that mostly struck the Yaqshid district of northern Mogadishu. On Friday morning, resident showed journalists the damage caused by the shelling.In this house three children were killed and another one was injured and taken to Keysaneey Hospital, now you can see we are taking the dead bodies for burial, said Mohamed Noor. The dead were buried on Friday while wounded were still being treated at Medina hospital which was filled and had some patients sheltering under trees. Somalia has had no central government for 18 years, and efforts to install one have been undermined by an insurgency led by the al Shabaab rebel group, which Washington accuses of being al Qaeda's proxy in the failed Horn of Africa state. Fighting has killed 19,000 Somalis since the start of 2007 and driven another 1.5 million from their homes, triggering one of the world's worst humanitarian emergencies.
