Heavy fighting breaks out in Somali capital

Heavy fighting broke out early today between forces of Somalia’s transitional government and gunmen loyal to an Ethiopian-backed warlord.

Hospital officials said at least 10 people were wounded.

The gun battles began around dawn in the same north Mogadishu area where clashes between government troops and the forces of warlord Musa Sude Yalahow killed at least eight people last week.

Gunfire could be heard a few hours after the fighting broke out, and an official at Mogadishu’s Medina hospital said at least 10 people had been brought in with wounds.

On Friday, hundreds of gunmen loyal to Yalahow and led by militia leader Mohamed Dhereh attacked interior minister Dahir Dayah’s house, leaving it in ruins. Dayah was not harmed, but at least eight people were killed and 20 others wounded in the fighting.

Somalia has had no effective central government since opposition leaders ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. They then fought with each other, turning the Horn of Africa nation of seven million into a patchwork of battling fiefdoms ruled by heavily armed militias.

The transitional government, led by President Abdiqasim Salad Hassan, was elected at a peace conference in neighbouring Djibouti in August 2000. But it has little influence outside Mogadishu, the capital, and is opposed by a number of faction leaders.