MOGADISHU - At least 36 people have been
killed and scores wounded in three days of fighting in towns
across chaotic southern and central Somalia, a local human
rights group said on Sunday.
Government troops fought a rebel group in a central town,
the two main insurgent forces battled each other in the south
and police from the semi-autonomous northern Puntland region
clashed with soldiers on their border.
In the breakaway northern enclave of Somaliland, a roadside
bomb killed a senior army officer on Sunday and wounded one of
his bodyguards, according to a government official.
In the capital Mogadishu, police said even some of the
president's own bodyguards made off with an escort vehicle and
took it to the main weapons market, which is run by insurgents.
"At least 36 people died and 175 others were injured in
Mogadishu, Galkayo and in Bakool region in the last three days,"
said Ali Yasin Gedi, vice-chairman of Elman human rights group.
Somalia has been mired in chaos for nearly two decades and
there is little sign the latest attempt to establish central
government is proving any more successful than the 14 previous
efforts since a dictator was ousted in 1991.
Western nations worry that the longer anarchy reigns in
Somalia, the more entrenched hardline rebels accused of links to
al Qaeda will become. They fear Somalia could then be used as a
base to wreak havoc in the region and beyond.
The chaos on land has also allowed pirate gangs to operate
with impunity, hijacking merchant ships, fishing vessels and
yachts to demand hefty ransoms for their return.
Government officials and residents said eight people were
killed and 16 wounded when government troops drove hardline
Islamist insurgents Hizbul Islam out of the central town of
Baladweyne on Friday.
Resident Fatuma Aden said the insurgents ran away after
heavy exchanges of mortar shells and gunfire and that government
forces were now at the airport.
In another incident on Friday, residents said fighting
between Hizbul Islam and al Shabaab -- a rebel group that
Washington says is linked to al Qaeda -- killed at least three
people and wounded seven in the southern Bakool region.
"Fighting has stopped and al Shabaab control the town but
still there is tension," local elder Malaq Muse told Reuters.
The country's two main insurgent groups had controlled much
of southern and central Somalia in an uneasy alliance. But that
was shattered by days of fighting between the rebels for control
of the lucrative southern port Kismayu.
Al Shabaab, which wants to impose its own harsh version of
sharia law throughout Somalia, has been cracking down on
activities it deems to be against Islam such as sport and music.
In the southern town of Marka on Friday, al Shabaab warned
men they would be punished for not wearing beards.
"Al Shabaab publicly ordered the barbers not to shave or
trim people's beards," resident Sabriye said by phone from
Marka. "They also ordered men not to shave beards -- or else
face punishment.