ETHIOPIAN Prime Minister Meles Zenawi has said more than 1,000 people have been killed in fighting between his troops, backing Somali government forces, and Somalia’s Islamist movement.

Rival militias pounded one another today in a seventh day of fighting for control of a neighbourhood north of the capital Mogadishu, and residents feared the battle could spread to other parts of Mogadishu and push the death toll beyond 150.

FIGHTERS loyal to secular warlords and Islamic extremists fired artillery and mortars at each other early yesterday in Somalia’s capital as hundreds of families fled violence that has killed at least 122 people over five days.

Businessmen, clan elders and moderate religious leaders shuttled between secular warlords and Islamic extremists in Somalia’s capital Mogadishu, trying to broker a ceasefire as the death toll from four days of fighting reached 96.

Rival militia battled with rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and assault rifles for control of part of the Somali capital Mogadishu for a third straight day. Fighting has killed at least 75 people and wounded more than 100, according to medical workers.