Fighting spreads across Somalia's capital for the first time in years

NAIROBI, Kenya -- Islamic and secular militias battled in Somalia's capital Thursday, the most widespread and some of the deadliest fighting in Mogadishu in 14 years. Dozens of people were killed and thousands fled their homes on foot.

The fighting spread from northern Mogadishu, scene of fierce battles in recent weeks, into the southern and eastern parts of the city, where the Islamic Courts Union militia made a rare foray, witnesses said.

Islamic militiamen captured a strategic road junction, known as K4, and seized the historic Sahafi Hotel, owned by a member of the rival anti-terrorism Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counterterrorism.

The fight for control of Mogadishu comes despite a May 14 cease-fire. The alliance claims the self-appointed Islamic court leaders, who have their own militias, have links to al-Qaida, while the Islamic militants accuse the alliance of working for the CIA. U.S. officials refuse to confirm any association with the secular militia.

Renewed fighting erupted Wednesday in northern Mogadishu and killed at least six people, and more than 140 people were killed in eight days of fighting earlier this month. But residents said Thursday marked the first time since 1992 -- when international forces came to Somalia, resulting in the failed U.S. troop operation featured in the book and movie "Black Hawk Down" -- that battles erupted in different parts of Mogadishu on the same day.

No public transport vehicles were operating in the city, and schools were closed for a second day. As night fell Thursday, the city center was largely empty, with just a few people hiding in buildings from sporadic mortar fire. Militias set up road blocks on many streets using sandbags or old cars.

At least 48 people were killed and about 90 injured, said Abdi Ibrahim Jiya of the Somali Doctors Association, citing information the association collected from Mogadishu's main hospitals. But he said casualty tolls were likely to rise because many civilians were unable to make it to a hospital.

Thousands of civilians fled their homes on foot, some carrying children on their backs, trying to avoid the crossfire or stray rockets, shells and bullets.

Among those fleeing southern and eastern Mogadishu were residents who had sought refuge there after fleeing the north, and many of them started returning home once the fighting subsided.

"I have fled from northern Mogadishu. Now the fighting has affected me in the south. So I would prefer to go back to home since there is no safe place in the city," said Sadumo Imaam, whose youngest child was killed Thursday by mortar fire.

The Islamic fundamentalists portray themselves as an alternative force capable of bringing order to Somalia, which has been without a real government since largely clan-based warlords overthrew longtime dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991.

A U.N.-backed government based in the central city of Baidoa, 155 miles northwest of Mogadishu, has been unable to assert authority. Islamic leaders reject the government because it is not based on Islam.

The battle for Mogadishu has further complicated relations within the transitional government, with Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi giving Cabinet ministers involved with the secular alliance, which operates independently, an ultimatum to join the administration in Baidoa or resign.

Mohamed Qanyare Afrah, an alliance leader and the national security minister, told The Associated Press on Thursday that he and three other alliance leaders in the Cabinet had not resigned despite widespread reports they had, raising questions about the already weak government's viability. He still refused to go to Baidoa.

Hussain Gutaleh Rageh, a spokesman for the alliance, said the fighting was "good for the government. ... We are paving the way for the smooth arrival of the government in Mogadishu."

Speaker of Parliament Sharif Hassan Sheikh Aden and the U.N. special representative to Somalia, Francois Lonseny Fall, both condemned the fighting.

"Somalia is already at war with nature and poverty on a scale that is difficult to conceive," Fall said. "The last thing this country needs is for its leaders to be fighting among themselves."

Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki -- during a meeting Thursday in Nairobi, Kenya with U.S. Counterterrorism Coordinator Henry Crumpton -- urged Washington and the international community to help Somalia's transitional government re-establish civil authority. Gedi also was in Nairobi, but officials declined to give details.

U.S. Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Donald Yamamoto has been in Kenya since Monday meeting with U.S. ambassadors from East Africa.

The Islamic militia's growth in popularity and strength is reminiscent to some of the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan in the late 1990s. The secular alliance says it has retrieved the bodies of Arab militiamen and others who resemble Pakistanis, Sudanese and Ethiopians, proving its rivals are bolstered by foreign fighters.

A 1992 attempt by the U.N. to intervene in Somalia yielded some success but deteriorated in October 1993 when U.S. troops tried to capture one of the most powerful warlords, Farah Aidid. The battle left 18 U.S. soldiers dead. Osama bin Laden considered the subsequent withdrawal of U.S. troops from Somalia his first victory against America.

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Associated Press writers in Mogadishu and Baidoa, Somalia, contributed to this report.