CORRECTED - Almost 120 killed in Somalia fighting

Thu May 11, 2006 5:38 PM IST
In MOGADISHU story headlined "Almost 120 killed in Somalia fighting"

please read in 4th paragraph ... Siyad Mohamed ... instead of Sayid. Please read in 11th paragraph ... Hussein Gutale Rage... instead of Guthle (corrects spellings)
A corrected story follows
By Mohamed Ali Bile
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Fierce clashes between Somali gunmen killed at least 20 people overnight, including a pregnant woman and her three children, a militia leader said on Thursday, bringing the death toll in five days of fighting to almost 120.
The third round of Mogadishu street battles this year between gunmen allied to Islamic courts and militia from a self-styled anti-terrorist alliance of powerful warlords erupted on Sunday.
Hundreds of people have been wounded in the worst violence in more than a decade, with many more fleeing their homes in the capital of the failed Horn of Africa country.
"At least 20 people have died since last night," said Siyad Mohamed, a militia leader linked to the Islamic side.
"Siisii has been turned into a battleground. So many houses have been shelled and hundreds of residents are fleeing. It's a catastrophe," he said, referring to a northern shanty town.
Militias firing mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and anti- aircraft missiles battled for control of Mogadishu after a brief truce collapsed on Wednesday.
Analysts say Somalia has become a new proxy battleground between Islamic militants and Washington, which is widely believed to be funding the warlords.
Mohamed said 50 people had been injured during the overnight clashes and a pregnant woman and her three children were killed when a mortar hit their house.
"The worst fighting took place last night in Siisii, it's still going on. The death toll will definitely rise," he said.
MORE BLOODSHED?
Mohamed, representing the Islamic courts which have used sharia law to create a semblance of order in the city of 1 million, said the warlord alliance had thrown 100 new gunmen into the battle.
A spokesman for the alliance, Hussein Gutale Rage, denied this but confirmed that fighting had raged through the night.
"It's true there were some fresh clashes yesterday and that there is also fighting going on in Siisii," Rage said.
Washington has long viewed Somalia, without central government since 1991, as a haven for terrorists.
Influential Somali Islamist Sheik Dahir Aweys, whose name appears on a U.S. list of most wanted terrorists, has accused Washington of backing the warlords to avenge the killing of American soldiers in Mogadishu in the 1990s during a U.N. peacekeeping mission that ended in humiliation.
U.N. monitors said in a report to the Security Council on Wednesday that they were investigating an unnamed country's violation of an arms embargo through clandestine support for the warlord "Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism".
Although the monitors did not identify the country, Somalia's interim president Abdullahi Yusuf has named the United States as the warlords' backer.
Analysts expect more bloodshed to come.
"The alliance wants to prove to their bosses that they can defeat the Islamic courts," said a security advisor, who works closely with Western donors but asked not to be identified.
However, another Somali expert said the Islamists were better-funded in the short-term.
"The courts are controlling all ports apart from Mogadishu so their source of income is steady, unlike the warlords who depend on American handouts," he said said.
(Reporting by Guled Mohamed in Nairobi)