Residents flee violence in Mogadishu

Hundreds of residents fled their homes today during a second day of fighting between Islamic insurgents and Somali and Ethiopian troops in which at least four people were killed and six wounded.

Gunfire could still be heard intermittently, but the fighting seemed to be less fierce than the yesterday's battles during which at least 21 people were killed and more than 120 wounded.

Government officials vowed today to continue with what they described as an operation to restore law and order in Mogadishu and take on the insurgents who they said are led by a top leader of the ousted Islamic courts.

Civilians, who suffered the most casualties, however, described the fighting as bringing more misery and pain after 16 years of chaos and violence.

Residents leaving their homes got into mini-vans or taxis, with the poorer ones carrying their belongings on their heads and in plastic bags. They were moving to safer parts of the city or leaving Mogadishu altogether.

One mother-of-seven said she was forced to leave behind her husband and two of her children because they were too weak to travel.

Hadija Mad Osman said her husband was injured by shrapnel when a mortar exploded near them, and the children had diarrhoea.

"I have left my husband and two of my children lying in a makeshift house near the football stadium," Osman said. "I do not know where I am going."

Insurgents fired rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and heavy machine-guns and government troops responded with artillery and machine-gun fire, witnesses said.

Deputy defence minister Salad Ali Jelle said the Somali government had gathered intelligence that indicated a top leader of the ousted Islamic courts, Aden Hashi Ayro, had been directing the insurgency in Mogadishu and was recently named the head of the al Qaida cell in Somalia.

He said the government had reports that Ayro was in Mogadishu.

Counter-terrorism experts believe Ayro, who is in his mid-30s, received al Qaida training in Afghanistan. UN officials have linked him to the killings of 16 people.

Counter-terrorism officials also believe he was involved in a plot - never carried out - to bring down an Ethiopian airliner.

Somalia has been without an effective central government since 1991. The current administration has failed to assert control throughout the country, and the African Union has deployed a small peacekeeping force to defend it.

But daily violence has continued in the capital, with civilians caught in the crossfire bearing the brunt of the violence.