More than 42 people were killed Friday and Saturday in heavy fighting between government troops and their militia opponents as they battled for control of the port in the Somalian capital of Mogadishu, residents said.
The fighting, the most intense in the city in months, pitted soldiers of the Transitional National Government of President Abdiqassim Salad Hassan against fighters of warlord Hussein Aideed. Residents said well over 100 people had been wounded, said Reuters.
The 18 hours of violence, which began late Friday afternoon, subsided shortly after dawn Saturday with the port and its immediate vicinity under the control of Aideed's militiamen, the residents told the agency.
Interior Minister Dahir Dayah told reporters the government had ordered its troops to withdraw from the scene of the fighting to help efforts to end the confrontation.
Aideed's aides accused the government of provoking the fighting and of plotting to kill Aideed.
The violence erupted a day after opposition warlords took delivery of a convoy of arms and ammunition in the city in what government officials said was an apparent attempt to destabilize their fledgling administration, Reuters said.
The arms were delivered from Ethiopia to the headquarters of Muse Sudi Yalahow in southwest Mogadishu, one of several warlords including Aideed who met in Addis Ababa in March to establish a rival government to Salad Hassan's administration.
Abdiqassim's government was established after a long meeting of clan leaders in Arta, in neighboring Djibouti last year, making it the anarchic country's first internationally recognized administration in nearly a decade.
In another incident, militiamen from the Dulbahante clan in Las Anod have clashed over issues relating to the planned referendum by the self-declared state of Somaliland, in northwestern Somalia, reported the Integral Regional Information Networks (IRIN) on Friday.
Citing local media reports, IRIN said that Dulbahante militiamen had attacked a checkpoint in the western part of Las Anod, which is on the border of Somaliland, neighboring the self-declared autonomous region of Puntland, northeastern Somalia.
Sources close to the Somaliland administration said that tensions had been rising over the last three days, with some 300 Dulbahante militiamen moving from the Puntland side into Las Anod.
Rival militias clashed when those from Puntland tried to take over the western checkpoint, the source told IRIN.
A three-hour battle resulted in at least two injuries, but much of the fighting was "posturing," the source said. According to Somaliland sources, tensions have heightened over a referendum planned at the end of May, which includes a vote on the independent status of Somaliland.
Some Dulbahante clan representatives have refused to accept ballot boxes in the town. "Clan leaders will have to decide on this issue," the source told the news service.
The pro-Somaliland newspaper Mandeeq said on May 10 that a soldier from the Somaliland national army had been wounded in the attack, along with two of the attacking militia.
No soldiers had been mobilised by the Somaliland administration, the source confirmed; Somaliland soldiers are stationed at most checkpoints.
The referendum on the new Somaliland constitution is planned for the end of May – Albawaba.com
© 2001 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
