Civilian toll rises to 200 as battle rages

Islamist insurgents and Ethiopian soldiers battled in the streets of Mogadishu for a fourth day, firing rockets and mortar rounds in what a human rights official said was the Somalian capital’s worst violence in years.

At least 73 civilians were killed, residents and medical staff said, bringing the civilian death toll to more than 200.

More than 321,000 residents have fled Mogadishu in the biggest refugee movement in Somalia since 1991.

Residents were shocked by the carnage. “I counted 20 dead in the street and the sidewalk. Some were missing heads, others were so mutilated you couldn’t tell if they were men or women,” resident Suleman Mohammed said from the Barakah area, where more than seven mortar rounds landed.