 The market was full of shoppers when the mortars landed |
More than 40 people were injured in the Bakara market explosions and officials say the death toll is expected to rise.
The attack came hours after an official in Somalia's security ministry said Islamist insurgents had regrouped and were poised to launch a major strike.
Sheikh Qasim Ibrahim Nur said that 80% of the country was now outside government control and was not safe.
The BBC's East Africa correspondent Karen Allen says this was a rare admission of the fragility of the transitional government, which is backed by troops from neighbouring Ethiopia.
It was a very horrific scene to see mortars landing on an area crammed with innocent civilians 
Ethiopia helped it end the Union of Islamic Courts' (UIC) six-month rule over large parts of southern Somalia, last December.
Our correspondent says the latest flare-up of fighting is widely believed to be an escalation in the conflict.
"It was a very horrific scene to see mortars landing on an area crammed with innocent civilians," Saleban Haji Muse, whose brother died in the market attack, told the BBC.
The attack took place a few hours after heavily armed insurgents engaged in a fire fight with the Ethiopian troops in a northern district of the city.
Somali government forces and their Ethiopian allies face increasing criticism from the international community.
They have been accused of indiscriminate attacks on civilians, in an effort to try and stop the spread of an Islamist insurgency, our reporter says.BBC News
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