Fighting in southwestern Somalia kills dozens of people, including 4 civilians

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Hours of fierce fighting between government troops and militias that killed dozens of combatants in Somalia’s southwestern city of Baidoa also left at least four civilians dead and 98 others wounded, a hospital official said Tuesday.The fighting erupted early Monday when militia groups attacked government positions on the outskirts of the city, which is home to more than half a million people displaced by conflict and drought. Somali officials said at least 30 attackers were killed, but did not immediately give a toll for government troops.Dr. Abdikafi Omar Mohamud, head of the emergencies department at Bay Regional Hospital in Baidoa, said the fighting also killed at least four civilians and injured 98, including 28 women and an elderly man hit by stray bullets. The latest violence placed additional pressure on health services already struggling to serve residents and displacement camps in Baidoa, about 245 kilometers (150 miles) northwest of Mogadishu.Mohamud's hospital had only 40 beds available and put up an emergency tent to accommodate the influx after the fighting erupted. Medical workers were also struggling with shortages of essential medicines, he sa...