Sixteen killed in Somalia battle

Sixteen people have been killed in fighting between Government troops and police in Mogadishu, Somalia, witnesses say.

This underscores the weak United Nations-backed Government's inability to control its armed forces.

Fighting began when police executed a plainclothes soldier they suspected of being an Islamist insurgent, officer Ahmed Nur said. The soldier's colleagues arrived at the shooting in Benadir market and began attacking police, he said.

A reporter saw 16 bodies at Medina hospital in Mogadishu. Some of the victims were wearing uniforms. Hospital director Mohamed Yusuf said 30 people were wounded.