Fighting between Islamic militia and a United States-backed warlord alliance subsided in the lawless Somali capital on Thursday, but tension remained high as the factions regrouped after deadly clashes.
Stung by the loss on Wednesday of a key position in north-east Mogadishu, the alliance reinforced a base north of the city with fighters drawn from a warlord who controls the town of Jowhar, about 90km away.
Witnesses said it appeared the gunmen in Balad, about 30km north of the capital, were preparing to attack Islamists at El-Irfid, a village on Mogadishu’s northern outskirts.
”We are getting word the warlords have been reinforced from Jowhar and are planning to raid El-Irfid, but we are well prepared,” said Mustafa Ali, an official with one of the city’s 11 Islamic courts.
In the city itself, sporadic gunfire could be heard around the north-eastern neighbourhood of Sukahola, where the Islamists seized alliance positions in well-coordinated attacks on Wednesday, residents said.
A day after the two sides pounded each other with heavy machine gun, rocket and artillery fire, the area was tense but generally violence free, although the death toll from Wednesday’s clashes rose by three to 10, they said.
”Apart from the sporadic gunfire, Sukahola is relatively calm,” said resident Abdulahmed Noor, who, like others, expressed deep concern about a resumption in battles.
”We fear fighting could erupt at anytime because the gunmen have not moved from the frontlines,” said Sukahola resident Amina Mohamed.
Hospital sources said the death toll from Wednesday’s clashes rose when three of the at least 11 people wounded, succumbed to their injuries overnight.
The new fatalities brought to at least 72 the number of people killed in the most recent round of clashes that began last Wednesday, worsened on Thursday and exploded on Saturday, when 30 people died.
More than 300 people have been killed and more than 1, 00 wounded, many of them civilians, since the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counterterrorism (ARPCT) and the Islamic courts began battling in February.
The ARPCT was set up in February with US support to curb the growing influence of the Sharia courts and track down extremists and foreign fighters, including al-Qaeda members, that they are allegedly harbouring.
The courts, which have declared a holy war against the alliance, deny the accusations.
Somalia has been without a functioning central authority since 1991 and the country’s largely powerless transitional government, based in Baidoa about 250km north-west of Mogadishu, has blamed both the alliance and the US for the fighting.
The US denies responsibility for the clashes, although it has refused to confirm or deny its support for the ARPCT.
But US officials and informed Somali sources have told Agence France-Presse that Washington has given money to the ARPCT, one of several groups it is working with to curb what it says is a growing threat from radical Islamists in Somalia. — Sapa-AFP