Mogadishu - Eight Somali soldiers were killed and at least 12 others wounded when armed militia opened fire on a military camp near the capital, witnesses said on Tuesday.
The witnesses said the attack occurred early on Monday when machine-gun wielding militias loyal to the Botan Isse Alin political faction stormed the Animal Market area which links Mogadishu to Somalia's central region.
Military spokesperson Colonel Abdi Guled confirmed the incident but declined to give further details.
The country collapsed into chaos after the overthrow of military ruler Mohammed Siad Barre in 1991 and a three-year mandate of an Arab-backed transitional national government formed in September 2000 ended last year without restoring peace.
Warlords and traditional leaders are trying to restore a central government to the country at reconciliation talks hosted by Kenya, but the 19-month-old process has been dogged by rifts between Ethiopia and Arab states, rivals for influence in the Horn of Africa.
Somali factions at the Kenya talks have yet to agree a successor administration to the transitional government. Conflict and famine have killed hundreds of thousands of people in the country of more than seven million since then.
East Africa regional governments have warned various militiamen to end fighting in Somalia so as not to undermine the country's peace process currently on its final stages.
On Monday, at least two people, including the mayor of Somalia's northern port town of Bosaso, were gunned down, residents said. The killing could worsen the security situation in the breakaway enclave of Puntland, they added.