Hundreds flee renewed fighting among Somali warlords

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.

Hundreds of people began fleeing their homes in southern Mogadishu after secular militias warned that their battle with radical Islamic fighters could spread areas not yet hit by the current round of fighting, Jamiilo Isaq Roble said as she fled with her three children.

At least seven people were killed and 14 others were wounded early yesterday in the now-deserted Sii-Sii neighbourhood of northern Mogadishu. Rival militias deployed near the road linking the city to southern Somalia – the only route currently accessible to civilians.

Sporadic fighting continued yesterday between fighters from the Islamic Court Union and the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counterterrorism.

The secular militia deployed fighters at checkpoints on the five main roads linking Mogadishu with the rest of the country to prevent the Islamist combatants from receiving reinforcements, spokesman Hussein Gutale Ragheh said.

Fighting eased yesterday after clan elders asked the combatants to allow residents to collect bodies that were lying in an area separating rival militias over the past four days, said Hussein Leehde, a senior alliance commander.

Residents who ventured into the battle zone to check on their homes said the combatants appeared exhausted after days of heavy fighting.

The fighting in Somalia has been largely fallen along clan lines and has been economically motivated. But the current battle appears to be ideological – over whether Somalia should be governed by Islamic law – fuelling what Mogadishu residents described as the worst fighting in more than a decade of lawlessness.

Most of the dead have been civilians caught in the crossfire. Fighters began looting some of the homes in between intense fire fights throughout Friday, witnesses said.

More than 280 people have been wounded, doctors said.

Hospitals are overwhelmed by casualties and the facilities were running out of medicine, said Dr. Abdi Ibrahim Jiya of the Medina Hospital.

The US Embassy in Nairobi issued a news release late on Friday calling “upon all parties to cease combat immediately.”

“We urge all parties to return to the path of dialogue and reconciliation and work within the framework of the transitional federal institutions,” the release said, referring to a new government attempting to establish control of the country.

But clan elders appeared to have abandoned efforts to negotiate a cease-fire.

On Thursday, the Islamic force poured dozens of troops into the battle for a strategic road in Mogadishu. The heavily armed reinforcements arrived in pickup trucks mounted with heavy machine guns.

But so far, neither side has gained an upper hand. While the alliance has held the road through Sii-Sii, the courts have controlled the neighbourhoods on either side.

The alliance accuses the Islamists of having ties to al-Qaida, while the Islamic group says the warlords are puppets of the US.

The courts are popular in Mogadishu because in recent years they have provided the only form of order in parts of the city, although in the past they have always been divided along clan lines. They are also considered to be fighting for Somalia, not an outside force.

Islamic fundamentalists have portrayed themselves as an alternative capable of bringing order and peace to a country that has had no effective central government since 1991, and have built up their forces as part of a campaign to install an Islamic government in Somalia – something opposed by warlords and a new interim government that has so far been unable to assert much authority because of infighting and insecurity.

The UN-backed transitional government has tried to assert control from Baidoa, 240 kilometres (150 miles) west of Mogadishu, because the capital is considered unsafe. Some of the warlords behind the alliance are members of the transitional parliament, although they are fighting the Islamic group on their own.

This latest fighting may only be the beginning. Other clan militias with loose loyalties to both sides have not joined in the fighting yet, but they continue to man defences in the neighbourhoods they control, and tensions are rising.