Associated Press
April 26, 2006
MOGADISHU, Somalia – Rival militiamen battled for control of a school near the base of a powerful warlord in the lawless Somali capital Wednesday, killing at least two people, residents said.
The clashes occurred after radical Islamic militias seized the school in preparation for war against an alliance of warlords-turned-Cabinet-ministers and armed businessmen over control of Mogadishu. The alliance includes Trade Minister Muse Sudi Yalahow, whose base was threatened.
On Sunday, at least seven people were killed when the rival militias battled for control of a district in the city.
At least one Islamic combatant and a teenage boy caught in the crossfire were killed in Wednesday’s clashes during which the alliance drove more than 100 rival fighters from the strategic area, said traditional leader Hussein Aboti and Aweiys Fodeey, a reporter for the independent Horn Afrik Radio.
Somalia has had no effective government since 1991, when warlords ousted a dictatorship and then turned on each other, carving the nation of an estimated 8.2 million people into a patchwork of fiefdoms. A transitional federal government that was formed following peace talks in neighboring Kenya is struggling to assert its authority.
Islamic fighters are seeking to boost the power of a group of fundamentalist clerics who have been trying to assert themselves as a military and political force in the country.
Seeking to curb the clerics’ growing power, some warlords and businessmen formed an armed coalition, the Alliance for Restoration of Peace and Counter Terrorism.
At least 100 people have been killed in combat and skirmishes that began a day after the alliance was formed in February.
On April 19, radical Islamic clerics declared a holy war against the alliance and appealed for people to join the ranks of the Islamist force.
The alliance has been recruiting new fighters, including members of clan militias, promising them payments of $250 a month.
Both sides were fortifying their defensive positions with sandbags, high caliber weapons and trucks mounted with anti-aircraft guns.
