MOGADISHU - At least 80 Somalis have been killed in heavy fighting in Mogadishu in the past 48 hours.
Residents continue to flee the beleaguered Somali capital a day after heavy shelling and gunfire claimed over 50 lives.
Residents say additional bodies were discovered this morning in southern Mogadishu, where Ethiopian troops backing the shaky Somali government have been fighting Islamic insurgents for two days.
One resident says a pregnant woman and an old man were among the dead found this morning and appear to have been killed overnight.
He describes the scene as "horrific.''
One doctor estimates more than 250 people -- mainly civilians -- wounded in the fighting are currently being treated in city's three main hospitals.
One father, crouching by the hospital beds of his two-year-old daughter and six-year-old son, says another of his sons had his head cut off.
The fighting was sparked when Ethiopian troops began patrols two days ago in a southern Mogadishu neighborhood seen as a hotbed of support for the Islamic insurgents.
