Asli Hassan cries as she aids her sister, who was wounded in roadside bomb, as she waits to be treated at the Madina hospital in Mogadishu, 03 Aug 2008

Witnesses in Somalia's capital say a roadside bomb explosion has killed at least 20 people, mostly women.

Sunday's early morning blast ripped through a group of female street cleaners.

Witnesses counted 15 bodies at the scene, while five other people died after being taken to Mogadishu's Medina Hospital.  More than 40 others were injured.

No one has claimed responsibility for the blast.

In a separate incident, Islamist insurgents attacked Ethiopian forces in Mogadishu's Towfiq neighborhood early today.  Witnesses say at least three soldiers were killed.

Ethiopian troops are supporting the Somali transitional government in its fight against the Islamist insurgency.

Eighteen months of fighting has killed thousands of Somalis and displaced hundreds of thousands more, most of them from Mogadishu. 

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991 when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and began fighting each other.
 

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP.