Insurgents kill eight refugees in Somalia

Eight people have been killed as insurgents launched an artillery attack on a refugee camp based in the Somali capital Mogadishu.

Eight people have been killed as insurgents launched an artillery attack on a refugee camp based in the Somali capital Mogadishu, reports reaching here said on Monday.

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The victims, including five children and one pregnant woman, died when a mortar shell hit their refugee camp. The killings came as the religious insurgents bombed an Ethiopian military base in the capital, drawing a counterattack from the Ethiopian forces.

The insurgents also Monday attacked a military base of the African Union (AU) peacekeeping forces in the southern part of the capital and exchanged fire with soldiers of Somalia's transitional government in the area.

No casualties in the AU forces were reported, according to a spokesman of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), but it was not clear whether the insurgents sustained any casualties.

The UN Security Council authorised earlier this year the deployment of an 8,000-strong African peacekeeping force in Somalia, which has been plagued by violence since late ruler Mohamed Siyad Barre was overthrown in 1991.