September 16 2004 at 07:07PM
By Mohammed Olad Hassan
Mogadishu, Somalia - Gunmen loyal to a Somali warlord and a clan-based faction battled for control of a strategic southern port on Thursday, killing at least 10 people and wounding more than 20 others, witnesses said.
The two sides began fighting using anti-aircraft guns, rocket-propelled grenades and assault rifles early Thursday about 100km south-west of the Indian Ocean port of Kismayo, said witnesses reached by two-way radio.
Fighting stopped as night fell, but there were fears that the two sides were regrouping for further clashes, said Siid Ali, a resident.
Gunmen loyal to warlord Mohamed Siad Hersi, better known as General Morgan, battled fighters loyal to the Juba Valley Alliance of clan-based faction leaders and Somali businessmen controlling the port, witnesses said.
Morgan is the only significant faction leader to boycott the peace talks in Kenya, which swore in the speaker of a new national parliament for Somalia on Wednesday. He walked out of the talks in March over a dispute regarding a transitional charter for Somalia.
The election of businessman Shariif Hassan Sheikh Aden brought the Horn of Africa nation a step closer to forming its first central government in 13 years. He spoke on local radio Thursday, appealing to the two sides to stop fighting and solve their difference through dialogue.
The two sides refused to give casualty figures, but medical sources and residents said at least 10 militiamen were killed and more than 20 others were wounded in the fighting.
Somalia has had no effective central government since opposition leaders ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Then they turned on each other, transforming this nation of seven million into a patchwork of battling fiefdoms ruled by heavily armed militias.
A transitional government was elected at a peace conference in neighbouring Djibouti in August 2000, but it had little influence outside the capital, Mogadishu. Its mandate expired in August 2003.
The selection of a parliament speaker clears the way for lawmakers to elect a president. Once elected, the president will then nominate a prime minister who will form a government. - Sapa-AP