Somali troops clash with insurgents, 20 killed

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Clashes between Islamist insurgents and Somali troops killed at least 20 people on Saturday including a senior police officer and a foreign militant in the heaviest fighting for a week, residents said.President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's government is struggling to take control over the Horn of Africa nation and the capital Mogadishu from hardline opposition fighters bent on overthrowing his western-backed government.Government soldiers battled their way into some rebel strongholds in north Mogadishu where the two sides exchanged mortar and machinegun fire, residents said."The streets are scary and smell of blood today," ambulance driver Ali Musa told Reuters.A senior police officer said that the director of Mogadishu's security department was killed in clashes early on Saturday.The government showed the body of what it said was an Afghani national fighting with Hizbul Islam, an umbrella opposition group led by hardline Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys."He was an Afghani senior commander with the anti-peace men fighting the government. He has his country's passport," military spokesman Farhan Arsanyo told Reuters...more..http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE56A12420090711?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews