MOGADISHU,  (Xinhua) — Shelling in the Somali capital Mogadishu on Sunday left at least five people dead and more than 50 others wounded as Islamist rebels and Somali government forces backed by African Union peacekeepers pounded each others positions, emergency sources and residents said.

The latest fighting is part of an on-going battle for control of the Somali capital Mogadishu which is divided between the warring sides. Shelling which hit mainly residential areas in the insurgent- held Heliwaa district in the northwest of Mogadishu killed at least five civilians, according to residents and local media.

“So far we have taken to hospitals 51 wounded people and we think that the figure may raise because the ambulances are still picking injured people from far neighbourhoods in the city,” Ali Muse, head of a local emergency service told Xinhua. The latest flare up of fighting comes after weeks of war of words between the Somali government which vowed it will “mob up” insurgents from the Horn of African country during the year while the Islamist insurgents pledged to “finish off” government control from the capital.

Meanwhile, African Union peacekeeping forces in Mogadishu on Sunday presented to the media a young man who they said was captured as he fought alongside Islamist rebels of Al Shabaab. The man, who lost one of his legs in the fighting, will be handed over to the Somali government which is fighting a deadly insurgency by the hard-line Islamist rebel movement of Al Shabaab.

The group, considered a terrorist entity with links to Al Qaeda, controls much of south and center of Somalia and wants to establish an Islamic state in war torn Somalia after overthrowing the weak but internationally recognised Somali government from power.