At least 18 people were killed in fighting on Monday in two central Somali towns where rebels battled a pro-government militia and each other, according to witnesses.
The Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca militia, which is aligned with President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed’s weak UN-backed administration, struck at Hizbul Islam insurgents in Baladwayne on Sunday and residents said clashes between the two sides resumed on Monday.
Separately, Hizbul Islam fighters battled in Dhobley with members of another guerrilla group, al-Shabaab, which Washington says is al-Qaeda’s proxy in the failed Horn of Africa state. Fighting has claimed the lives of more than 21 000 Somalis and uprooted about 1,5-million since the start of 2007. Western security agencies say the country is a haven for militants and foreign jihadists with the potential to disrupt neighbouring countries.
The rebels want to extend their area of control from the south towards the pro-government, north-eastern region of Puntland. Ahmed’s government controls little more than the sea port, the airport and his palace in Mogadishu.
Residents in Baladwayne said both sides were exchanging heavy machine-gun fire in the streets on Monday, and a Somali human rights group said the death toll of 13 was likely to rise.
“Both groups carried away their casualties. We do not know how many fighters died,” Ali Yasin Gedi, vice-chairperson of the Elman Peace and Human Rights Organisation, told Reuters.
Separately, witnesses said at least five people were killed on Monday as Hizbul Islam and al-Shabaab rebels fought each other in Dhobley town, further west near the border with Kenya.
Hizbul Islam and al Shabaab both want to impose a harsh version of sharia across the country — but have regularly clashed over southern and central territories in recent months.
“We attacked the police station and a military compound in Dhobley. We have killed dozens of al-Shabaab fighters,” Hizbul Islam member Mahmed Amin told Reuters by telephone.
“We will never stop the fighting.”
An al Shabaab spokesperson in the rebel-held port of Kismayu denied anyone had died in Dhobley, but declined to elaborate.
On Sunday, Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca militiamen said they had executed an al-Shabaab commander after he refused to renounce al-Shabaab’s hardline ideology. – Reuters