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MOGADISHU, Jan 15 (Reuters) - Somali gunmen attacked a convoy of Ethiopian soldiers in Mogadishu late on Sunday, and fighting ensued for half an hour, a Somali government source said on Monday.

"An Ethiopian convoy was hit near Arafat hospital. One of their trucks was hit and burnt," the source said referring to a hospital in a northern Mogadishu neighbourhood where government and Ethiopian troops had searched houses for weapons on Sunday.

"Thirty minutes of heavy fighting followed. There are deaths on both sides but I don't have numbers."

Ethiopian forces helped Somali government troops oust Islamists in a lightning December offensive but have been attacked in the capital and other Somali towns.

The government is seeking to install itself in Mogadishu, one of the world's most dangerous cities.

A government spokesman said on Sunday government forces had seized AK-47s, grenades and explosives from houses in Arafat in the latest push to bring back order in the chaotic Horn of Africa nation after weeks of war.

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