Fighters from Somalia's Shebab Islamist group attacked a government military base in Mogadishu Saturday, where a blast was followed by an exchange of gunfire, officials and witnesses said.

Enemy "elements attacked a Somali military base near the industrial road (north of the city center), but they were defeated and suffered losses", Colonel Abdallah Mohamed of the Western-backed government forces told Agence France Presse.

African Union and Somali government troops said Monday they seized key positions from Islamist insurgents during an offensive to flush out the last rebel pockets in Mogadishu.

"Operations have started to take control of the northern corridor and drive the al-Qaida-linked extremists out of the city," the government said in a statement.

Somalia's Shebab rebels vowed more attacks after a deadly car bomb killed more than 70 people in Mogadishu, spokesman Ali Mohamud Rage said in speech broadcast Wednesday by the group's radio.

"We are promising that attacks against the enemy will be routine, more in number and will increase day by day," Rage said over radio al-Andalus.

At least one person was killed Saturday by a powerful explosion at the offices of the United Nations Mine Action Service in Somalia's capital Mogadishu, witnesses said.

The blast destroyed a car in the service's parking lot, killing at least one person in the vehicle, witness Abdulahi Ahmed told Agence France Presse.

A Trans Mediterranean Airlines plane carrying 35 tons of food and medical aid headed to the Somali capital of Mogadishu to help the country’s famine victims, the National News Agency reported Friday.

NNA said the TMA flight took off from Rafik Hariri international airport at 7:00 am. The plane is carrying 33 tons of food and 2 tons of medicine and medical equipment.

Islamist forces pulled out of many of their bases in the Somali capital of Mogadishu overnight, government and rebel spokesmen said Saturday.

"The information we are receiving is that there is a retreat from the city. This is a golden victory for the Somali people and we are committed to ensure that peace and order is restored to those areas," said government spokesman Abdirahman Omar Osman.

Heavy fighting broke out Thursday in the Somali capital Mogadishu, after government forces backed by African Union troops launched an assault against a stronghold of the hard-line Shebab insurgents, officials and witnesses said.

"There is heavy fighting this morning in several locations, it is too early to say about casualty numbers, but there are some civilians who were injured in the crossfire," said Ali Muse, the head of Mogadishu's ambulance service.

Somalia's newly-appointed women's minister is under house arrest after being abducted by Islamist insurgents, family members said on Friday.

Gunmen seized 32-year-old Asha Osman Aqiil on Thursday in Balad, a town north of the capital Mogadishu, a day after she was named the country's minister for women and family affairs.

Clashes pitting Somali government forces and their African Union allies against Islamist rebels for control of Mogadishu's main market left at least 17 civilians dead on Thursday, officials said.

Many of the victims died when stray artillery fire hit a bus station where people were waiting.

government forces backed by African Union troops killed at least 17 civilians in Mogadishu, medical sources said Wednesday.

Fighting between the Shebab insurgency and government troops erupted Tuesday in the south of the capital.