Somalis battle for strategic town of Jowhar

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Fighting erupted on Wednesday for control of the strategic Somali town of Jowhar, where some warlords from a self-styled anti-terrorism alliance had taken refuge after their defeat in Mogadishu by Islamic militias.

Residents said militia fighters linked to Islamic courts had launched attacks to the south and north of Jowhar, about 90 km (55 miles) north of Mogadishu, with heavy artillery and machine guns.

The fighting has erupted 10 minutes ago, we don't know what will happen next," one resident told Reuters briefly by telephone before the line cut off.

Militia fighters linked to the local district administration and to remaining warlords including Mohamed Dheere were defending the town, the inhabitants said.

Analysts say if the Islamic militias capture Jowhar, they will control most of southern Somalia, raising questions about whether they will help install an interim government currently based in the town of Baidoa or set up a rival administration.

The Islamic militias recently ousted warlords -- widely believed to be backed by the United States -- from Mogadishu in battles that killed more than 350 people.

The warlords had ruled Mogadishu, one of the world's most dangerous cities, since the 1991 ouster of former Somali dictator Mohamed Siad Barre ushered in an era of anarchy.

Hours before fighting began in Jowhar, four warlords who had gone there from Mogadishu fled the town, while a key ally said he was abandoning their cause.

TROUBLE IN BAIDOA TOO

Former Somalia police chief Colonel Abdi Hassan Awale said his clan elders had convinced him to stop fighting on the side of the warlords to end further bloodshed.

"I have decided to give up my membership in the anti-terror alliance after pressure coming from my clan," Awale said.

Four counterparts who had taken refuge in Jowhar fled late on Tuesday as militiamen loyal to the Islamic courts approached.

Abdulahi Dahir, one of the administrators of Jowhar, told Reuters former ministers Bootan Isse Alim and Mohamed Qanyare had taken off from their base there, accompanied by two other lesser-known warlords.

Sources said the four warlords had moved toward the central regions of Eldur where their clans were based.

The Islamic courts militia told the United States that they are not Washington's enemies, but the Bush administration is taking a cautious approach to the courts' new prominence.

The warlords are looking increasingly isolated, analysts say, particularly after east African nations slapped sanctions including a travel ban on them at a meeting in Nairobi.

Former minister Muse Sude Yalahow, Omar Mohamed Finnish, and militia leader Bashir Raghe, are the only remaining prominent warlords in Mogadishu, residents say.

In further unrest on Wednesday, militia fighters dislodged from Baidoa -- where Somalia's interim government has set up its base -- were grouping and threatening to attack the town.

President Abdullahi Yusuf's government, the 14th attempt to restore central rule in Somalia since 1991, has set up its own militia in Baidoa to provide security.

But Mohamed Hassan Borako, a leader of Baidoa militia angry at being displaced, said from a town nearby: "We have to go back again to Baidoa, in order to attack."

By Mohamed Ali Bile