Hizbul Islam and Al-Shabaab Fight in Southern Somalia

MOGADISHU – At least nine people were killed and scores wounded Thursday, October 1, in clashes between allied rebel groups in Somalia’s southern city port of Kismayu.

"The battle has started everywhere in the city,� resident Deqo Ali told Reuters by telephone.

“There are heavy exchanges of bullets and we can see militia taking part in the fighting."

Residents said deadly clashes erupted between Al-Shabaab gunmen and their one-time allies from Hizbul Islam at dawn.

"They are using heavy weapons everywhere," said Abdullahi Ali, a nurse.

Bodies littered across the streets of the southern city.

Abdi Hallane, a local man, counted six dead gunmen lying outside his home.

At least 15 civilians were also injured in the fighting.

One senior Hizbul Islam commander in Kismayu, Sheikh Ahmed Islam, said the clashes broke out after Al-Shabaab gunmen attacked his group's positions.

The two rebel groups launched a deadly offensive in May against the Somali government of President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed in a bid to unseat it.

The fighting has left hundreds of civilians dead and forced more than 200,000 from their homes.

The two rebel groups ruled Kismayu in an easy coalition, but their relations deteriorated last week after Al-Shabaab named its own council to run the port city, excluding all Hizbul Islam members.

On Wednesday, Hizbul Islam leaders threatened to fight Al-Shabaab "everywhere" in Somalia if clashes began at the port city, which is a lucrative source of taxes and other income.

Terrified

A spokesman for Al-Shabaab group said their forces would prevail.

"We will drive Hizbul Islam out of town within hours," the spokesman, Sheikh Hassan Yaqub, told reporters at the port.

The deadly clashes forced hundreds of terrified civilians to flee, while others cowered in their homes.

"They are firing in front of my home,� said Maryam Maalin, a single mother-of-four in Kismayu's Alenlay district.

She said the fighting makes it impossible for her to flee with her children.

“We have nothing to eat and we are scared for our lives,� the terrified mother said.

“If I could get a chance to run, I would take my young kids and go."

Fighting in Somalia has killed nearly 19,000 civilians since the start of 2007.

More than 1.5 million have been displaced from their homes.

Western donors have long hoped hardliners in Al-Shabaab could be isolated by a deal between more moderate Hizbul Islam leaders and the Somali government that could bring some stability to Somalia after nearly two decades of anarchy.