Residents flee Somalia's capital as militias skirmish for strategic positions

MOGADISHU, Somalia -- Residents began fleeing Somalia's capital early Monday after a night of fighting between a secular militia and gunmen loyal to Mogadishu's Islamic courts reportedly left 18 people dead and 21 wounded.
Witnesses said the fighting began when gunmen working for a militia commander linked to the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counterterrorism opened fire on a gun truck carrying the bodyguards of Islamic Court Union chairman Sheik Sharif Sheik Ahmed.
"I can only remember that five heavily armed gunmen were firing on a vehicle passing in Sii-Sii village of north Mogadishu, then I found myself in this hospital," said Haliima Abdulle, a mother of six who was wounded in the kiosk she operates.
Galaasow Mohamed, a resident of north Mogadishu, said relatives collected at least eight bodies off the streets following the battle, including a two year old child and a pregnant woman.
Medical officers at the city's three hospitals said six people had died of wounds sustained in the fighting. A family of four was reportedly killed when their house was struck by a mortar, other witnesses said.
The alliance and the Islamic union have been squaring off for several weeks in anticipation of a battle for control of Mogadishu. The alliance accuses the Islamic courts of sheltering foreign al-Qaida leaders, while the courts accuse the alliance of being pawns of the United States.
Somalia has had no effective central government since 1991, when warlords ousted longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on each other -- carving this nation of an estimated 8 million people into a patchwork of anarchic, clan-based fiefdoms.
A U.N.-backed transitional government has based itself in the central city of Baidoa, but has so far failed to assert itself elsewhere in the country.
Khaliif Jumale, 37, loaded his wife and three children onto a donkey cart early Monday and said he was taking them to Afgoye, 30 kilometers (29 miles) south of Mogadishu.
"There is no reliable place here when it comes to our security," he said. "Every corner of the city, the militias of the same rival groups have taken up positions to prepare for more lethal fighting ... there is no cold place in an inferno."
Since March at least 120 people have been killed and 70 more wounded in similar clashes between the alliance and the Islamic courts. Traditional elders and local chiefs have attempted to organize peaceful negotiations but have repeatedly failed.
"Whenever fighting breaks out between two rival militias, we used to sort out through traditional means or on tribally based talks," but it was becoming more difficult to mediate between the two sides, said Garad Yussuf Dibad, a well-respected traditional leader.
Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, president of the transitional government, said earlier this week that he was concerned about what he believed was U.S. support for the alliance. But U.S. officials have refused to confirm or deny their involvement with the alliance.
(AP)
May 8, 2006