Mortar bombs crashed into central Mogadishu today as Uganda confirmed it had lost its first peacekeeper as battles pitting Ethiopian and Somali troops against Islamist insurgents entered a fourth day.
Scores of civilians have died and hundreds have been wounded in what the International Committee of the Red Cross says is the seaside capital's worst clashes for more than 15 years.
Ethiopian tanks and helicopter gunships pounded rebel strongholds as Islamists and clan militia fire back with machineguns, missiles and rocket-propelled grenades.
Ugandan peacekeepers sent last month at the head of an African Union (AU) force to help Somalia's interim government restore stability have been caught in the crossfire, pinned down at strategic sites, including the air and sea ports.
"Our troops were guarding the presidential compound on Saturday when it was struck by mortars. One of our soldiers was killed," Ugandan military spokesman Major Felix Kulayigye told Reuters by telephone from Kampala. Five others were injured.
Previous ambushes by insurgents that wounded two Ugandans had already made other African states wary of sending more men to boost the AU force to its planned strength of 8,000. Burundi, Malawi, Ghana and Nigeria have pledged to send troops.