Fighting between Ethiopian troops and insurgents left at least 12 people dead in Somalia's capital Thursday, while an Ethiopian military truck exploded on the outskirts of the city, possibly killing the soldiers on board, witnesses said.
Heavy shelling is pounding most of the civilian populated areas in the north and south of the country.
More than 200,000 people have fled Mogadishu since February, the U.N. refugee agency said.
Also on Thursday, a witness said he heard an Ethiopian truck explode after it passed his small pharmacy about 12 miles from the capital. The truck was one of two carrying Ethiopian soldiers traveling on the main road to towns in southern Somalia, he said.
Yusuf Osman said on the phone that he saw the trucks leaving and "within minutes we heard a blast and saw one of the cars burning ... I think all the soldiers were killed as the whole car was on fire."
Ali Hussein Mohamed, a street vendor, told The Associated Press by phone that he saw 10 injured Ethiopian soldiers lying on the ground.
Osman said soldiers in the second truck opened fire on a nearby minibus after the blast. He saw two injured people, but did not know if anyone was killed.
Its also reported around 89 Ethiopian soldiers left Mogadishu and fled north to the Yemen coast after boarding a refugee ship heading for the Yemeni coast, Eritrea also reported that at least 9 Ethiopian soldiers crossed the borders to its country fleeing Ethiopian's oppressive regime.
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