Fresh fighting erupted in Mogadishu on Saturday after a brief lull, killing at least five people and injuring 11 others in intermittent battles that have blighted the lawless capital since February, witnesses said.
Residents reported heavy gunfire in the southern Daynile district, where at least three people were killed and six others injured in the morning violence.
The fighting was most intense at two road blocks belonging to rival militias, said Nur Osman, a Daynile resident.
”The main violence started in Daynile about nine o’clock, but sporadic gunfire was heard earlier,” said another resident, Daud Mohamed.
”Both sides are exchanging heavy gunfire which could be heard in other parts of the capital,” he added.
A member of a milita allied to one of the feuding sides said that fighting had also erupted in the northern Galgalato district where two people were killed and five others wounded.
Saturday’s battles resumed after a brief calm following two days of violence that worsened on Thursday, claiming at least 30 lives and injured 72 others.
The fighting pits Islamists against the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT), which was set up in February with United States backing to curb the growing influence of Islamic courts and track down extremists, including al-Qaeda members, they are allegedly harbouring.
The courts, which have declared a holy war against the alliance — that they say is financed by the ”enemy of Islam”, — deny the accusations.
The fighting has continued despite repeated calls by the international community for the rival factions to halt their hostilites, while efforts by elders to reach a ceasefire have thus far been fruitless.
Somalia’s largely powerless transitional government, based in Baidoa about 250km north-west of Mogadishu, has blamed both the alliance and the United States for the fighting.
The United States says it is being ”wrongly blamed”, although it has refused to confirm or deny its support for the ARPCT.
But US officials and Somali officials and warlords have told Agence France-Presse that Washington has given money to the ARPCT, which is one of several groups it is working with to curb what it says is a growing threat from radical Islamists in Somalia.
The Horn of Africa nation of about 10-million has been without a functioning central authority since the 1991 fall of strongman Mohamed Siad Barre plunged it into anarchy, with warlords battling for control of a patchwork of fiefdoms. – Sapa-AFP