Islamist insurgent groups turn on each other in Somalia (Roundup)

Oct 1, 2009, 14:34 GMT

Mogadishu - Clashes broke out between two allied Islamist insurgent groups in the Somali port town of Kismayo Thursday, leaving at least nine fighters dead, residents of the town said.

Al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam have been working together to try and topple the fragile Western-backed government. Between them they control much of south and central Somalia.

However, residents of Kismayo told the German Press Agency dpa that clashes began in early morning and that that they had seen the bodies of nine fighters.

Somali broadcaster Radio Garowe reported at least 25 deaths, including ten civilians who died in car crash while fleeing the violence.

Civilians were streaming out of the city to escape the fighting, witnesses said.

Sheikh Hassan Yaqub, an al-Shabaab spokesman in Kismayo, warned on Wednesday that al-Shabaab would attack its allies, accusing them of trying to gain power in the city.

Hizbul Islam has refused to accept al-Shabaab's sole administration in Kismayo, which was captured from government- friendly forces last year.

Sheikh Ismail Addow, a senior Hizbul Islam official, told reporters on Wednesday that if al-Shabaab attacked, the fighting would spread to all other territories controlled by the two groups.

Somalia is widely regarded as a failed state, and has been embroiled in chaos since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and descended further into lawlessness in early 2007, when the insurgency kicked off following an Ethiopian invasion.

More than 18,000 people have died since the insurgency began. Over half of the Somali population is now dependent on food aid due to the conflict and drought.

Al-Shabaab, which the United States says has links to al-Qaeda, has increasingly turned to terror tactics in its fight with the government and African Union peacekeepers.

A double suicide blast at an AU base in Mogadishu on September 17 claimed the lives of 17 peacekeepers.