Fighting between clans left 14 people dead and 24 injured in the village of Huldonyale in central Somalia, the Mogadishu-based Elman rights group said.

Government troops alongside African Union peacekeepers exchanged shells in Mogadishu with Al-Shabaab rebels, who are waging an Islamist insurgency against the Western-backed government. Seven people were killed and 18 wounded.

The clan fighting was believed to be a continuation of clashes over pasture and water.

"This clash has been recurring for months. It seems there is no sign of a cease-fire agreement between these two neighboring clans," Ali Yasin Gedi, the vice chairman of Elman, told Reuters.

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 insurgency that controls much of the country's south and center. Somalia has not had a functioning government in nearly 20 years.