| GEO World | | Fighting in Somali capital kills 9 | Updated at: 1243 PST, Wednesday, May 27, 2009
MOGADISHU: Somali insurgents fired mortars at the presidential palace in the capital, killing seven civilians and two government soldiers, witnesses and officials said Wednesday.
Military spokesman Farhan Casoye said the insurgents were aiming for the palace but hit a residential area Tuesday night _ the latest bloodshed in a surge of violence this month that has killed nearly 200 people.
Insurgents are trying to topple the country's Western-backed government and install a strict Islamic state. `The mortars rained down on our home, I ran with my children for cover and on my way I saw the dead bodies of two government soldiers in uniform, they were hit by a mortar,'' Sahra Abdullahi Gedi, a mother of six
The military spokesman said seven civilians were killed.
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