13 killed in battle for Somali town

Inter-clan fighting for control of a town in southern Somalia today left 13 people dead and 20 injured, witnesses reached by radio said.

The fighting started when some 900 militiamen attacked the town of Ealwaq, 275 miles west of the capital Mogadishu, near the Kenyan border.

Residents who fled to the nearby town of Dhamas said the fighting lasted four hours before the attackers retreated. The two clan groups have fought before for the town in April, when more than 50 people were killed.

Hundreds of residents had fled the town by the afternoon, seeking shelter in surrounding villages.

Attempts by clan elders to negotiate a ceasefire and an end to the fighting had so far failed.

Somalia has been without a central government since clan-based warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Warlords then turned on each other, plunging the Horn of Africa nation of seven million into anarchy.

A new government, formed in neighbouring Kenya in 2004, is opposed by Islamic extremists and some of the dozens of warlords in the country.

So far, it has been unable to return home because of the lack of security.