Somali militia battle enters seventh day, 144 dead

Mortars, machine guns and rockets pounded Mogadishu yesterday in a seventh day of fierce militia fighting that has killed at least 144 people so far and which spread quickly across the ravaged city.

As the street battles dragged on in rundown areas of the Somali capital, the interim government - powerless to stop the shooting and unable to enter Mogadishu - called for foreign intervention to end the worst fighting there in years.

At least 11 civilians were killed overnight as gunmen from a powerful alliance of warlords engaged in close-range firefights and artillery duels with militiamen backed by the city's influential Islamic courts.

Fighting had originally been limited to the northern shantytown of SiiSii, but spread into the nearby areas of Yaqsid and Karan before erupting yesterday in neighbourhoods across southern Mogadishu.

Analysts view the fighting in the failed Horn of Africa state as a proxy battle between Al-Qaeda and Washington, which is widely believed to be funding the warlords.

The warring parties were massing militiamen and another warlord, Mohamed Dheere and his militia arrived from his stronghold in Jowhar to join the battle.

The warlords closed off the entries in and out Mogadishu, including a key road to southern Somalia to block the advance of a powerful Islamic militia heading to join its allies.

Warlord Colonel Abdi Hassan Awale said his fighters were checking all vehicles travelling in and out of the city for the presence of foreigners believed to be training and fighting alongside the Islamic militias.

As the battlezone widened, residents and aid workers said they feared more civilian casualties as munitions kept striking homes.

Most of the dead and many among the hundreds who were wounded were non-combatants. Residents continued to flee their homes, taking basic possessions with them.

The interim government, now based in the southern city of Baidoa because it is unable to exert much control in the country of 10 million, appealed for humanitarian aid for the victims.