Thursday's clashes were triggered when Islamist insurgents killed five Ethiopian and Somali soldiers in an attack on their convoy.

Fearing the bodies would be dragged through the streets, the Ethiopians launched an major offensive.

A BBC correspondent in Mogadishu says it is the heaviest shelling in a month and 25 people were killed in all.

Ethiopian troops intervened in Somalia just over a year ago, when they helped government forces oust Islamists from much of southern Somalia.

Since then it is estimated that 60% of Mogadishu's residents have fled their homes.

A doctor at the city's main Medina Hospital, which is caring for 96 of the 110 wounded, told the BBC that there was a lack of beds, but the staff were coping despite exhaustion.

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