Gunbattles, Attacks In Somalia Kill 13

MOGADISHU, Somalia - A string of attacks killed at least 13 people around southern Somalia, where government troops and their Ethiopian allies are battling Islamist insurgents, witnesses and officials said Tuesday.

The area has seen little peace since December, when the Ethiopian troops supporting Somalia's fragile government drove out a radical Islamic group that had seized control. The defeated insurgents vowed to wage an Iraq-style guerrilla war until the country becomes an Islamic state.

Roadside bombs, attacks on government installations, assassination attempts and gunbattles have become common. Civilians often are caught in the crossfire, and hundreds of thousands of people have fled the capital.

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