Scores fled the fighting and streets were full of terrified old people and children. (Reuters)

MOGADISHU – Clashes between gunmen allied to Islamic courts and militia loyal to a US-backed warlord alliance intensified on Thursday, May 25, killing up to 30 people.

"There are so many people dead, I saw nearly 30 dead and over 40 wounded," resident Abdifatah Abdikadir told Reuters by telephone from the Kilometre Four area in southern Mogadishu.

"People are being carried on wheelbarrows to the hospital with broken limbs and gunshot wounds. It's going from bad to worse."

Mogadishu residents carried wounded Somalis on wheelbarrows as bullets flew over the battered capital.

Firing mortars, grenades and anti-aircraft guns, gunmen linked to Islamic courts squared off with militia of the self-styled Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT), which analysts and Somalis believe are US funded.

Scores fled the fighting, which erupted on Wednesday, May 24, and streets were full of terrified old people and children, witnesses said.

The battle for control of Mogadishu has been going on since February, and this fourth round ended a ceasefire of nearly a week, brokered by clan elders.

So far at least 270 people have been killed, most of them civilians, in fighting that was largely confined to the north of the coastal capital, but has since spread south.

The latest clashes were some of the most violent in Mogadishu since the end of the American intervention in 1994.

Somalia, a nation of 10 million people in the Horn of Africa, has been without a functioning central authority since the fall of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991 plunged it into anarchy.

Not Resigning

In a related development, Internal Security Minister warlord Mohamed Qanyare, under pressure for his involvement in the Mogadishu fighting, denied reports he and three other ministers in the ARPCT were thinking of resigning.

"That's pure propaganda, it's not true, I did not say that," Qanyare told Reuters by telephone.

"I said we are busy fighting with terrorists now. We don't have time for the government."

Qanyare has come under pressure from members of parliament who say he and other warlords involved in Somalia's worst fighting in a decade should be sacked as government ministers and charged with war crimes.

Members of parliament meeting in the southern city of Baidoa last week asked Prime Minister Mohamed Ali Gedi to dismiss warlords from the cabinet.

They accused the warlords of breaking ceasefire accords signed in Kenya during the formation of the government.

Other warlords include Commerce Minister Muse Sudi Yalahow, Religious Affairs Minister Omar Mohamed Mohamud and Militia Disarmament Minister Bootan Isse Alim.

The interim administration, the 14th attempt at restoring central rule since 1991, is powerless to control fighting in Mogadishu.

Proxy War

Analysts view the righting as a proxy war on behalf of Washington, which views Somalia as a terrorist haven, according to Reuters.

William Bellamy, the US ambassador to Kenya whose jurisdiction includes Somalia, denied on Tuesday, May 23, blame for fomenting violence in Somalia.

He, however, kept mum on whether the US is backing the warlord alliance.

Bellamy said the US had "encouraged" a broad spectrum of Somali groups to counter what it sees as a growing threat from groups it believes are harboring Al-Qaeda members.

Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, a leading Islamist on America's most wanted terrorists list, told Reuters from Mogadishu this week the charges were "pure propaganda".

"There are no terrorists here. They are only looking for a reason to turn our country into another Iraq," he said.

The interim Somali government has accused Washington of fanning the flames of civil war in the African country by backing warlords, not only financially but also militarily.

"Clearly we have a common objective to stabilize Somalia, but the US is using the wrong channels," Gedi told the Washington Post on Wednesday, May 17.

"This is a dangerous game."