The head of Mogadishu's ambulance service, Ali Muse, says at least 21 other civilians were wounded in Thursday's fighting.

Radio Mogadishu, the state-run radio station, reported that President Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed visited the front lines. The station's website showed him standing near sandbags while wearing army fatigues.

Somalia's weak, UN-backed government is battling an Islamist insurgency that controls much of the country's south and center. Somalia has not had a functioning government in nearly 20 years.