Civilians brace for more fighting in Somali capital

Fighters loyal to an Islamic militia and their secular rivals manoeuvred heavily armed trucks around city streets and reinforced their positions in Somalia’s capital early today, following a battle that residents said was the most widespread fighting in 14 years.

Doctors in Mogadhisu’s hospitals and clinics raised the death toll to 60, with more than 150 people wounded in yesterday’s running battle across Mogadishu, said Dr. Abdi Ibrahim Jiya of the Somali Doctors Association.

Islamic militiamen from the Islamic Courts Union made a rare foray into southern and eastern parts of the capital and captured a strategic road junction in the center of the city, known as K4.

They also seized the historic Sahafi Hotel, which is owned by a member of the secular alliance known as the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-terrorism.

The Islamic fundamentalists portray themselves as an alternative force capable of bringing order to the country, which has been embroiled in clan fighting and without a real government since 1991.