WASHINGTON, May 10 (UPI) -- At least 90 people have died and more than 200 have been injured since fighting broke out Sunday in Somalia's lawless capital, Mogadishu.
Clashes erupted over the weekend between an alliance of secular Somali warlords and gunmen loyal to hard-line Islamist courts and have since mounted.
The group of powerful warlords have set aside long-standing rivalries to form a self-styled counter-terrorism bloc to rout al-Qaida-linked Islamists who administer a network of courts supported by armed militias. This latest bout of violence is the worst to rock the capital in years, according to doctors and officials.
A temporary cease-fire had been in place early Wednesday, but fell through by midday as gun battles raged across the capital. One doctor on the ground said 95 people have been confirmed dead since the start of fighting and another 229 people are receiving medical attention in hospitals and makeshift clinics.
Twelve militants were killed in fighting Wednesday, but the vast majority have been civilians -- including a 12-year-old boy who died Tuesday when a mortar struck a hospital where he was being treated for wounds already sustained.
Francois Fall, U.N. envoy for Somalia, Wednesday urged warlords to consider "the fear and chaos for those civilians trapped in the crossfire" and to end hostilities immediately.
"The indiscriminate use of heavy machine guns, mortars, rocket-propelled grenades and artillery in and between urban areas is unacceptable," Fall said. "By taking their grievances to the streets, these armed groups have effectively unleashed a war on their own people. I appeal to leaders on both sides to step back from the brink and reconsider the damage they are inflicting on the population."
The Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism, led by militia leader Abdi Nure Siyad, christened its formation in late February by touching off a wave of violence that killed at least 22 people and displaced hundreds of families.
Street clashes between armed groups have plagued Somalia since the 1991 ouster of former dictator Mohamed Siad Barre. The country's 11 million citizens have been without an effective central government for 15 years, and some Somali activists say the Islamic courts have had a stabilizing effect on previously chaotic parts of the capital.
But members of the ARPCT charge the makeshift judicial system has ordered extra-judicial killings of moderate Muslim clerics; abetted militias alleged to have ties with al-Qaida; and fostered a radical resurgence.
Earlier this week, a 16-year-old boy in Mogadishu publicly stabbed his father's killer to death at a Koranic school on orders from an Islamic court. According to the BBC, a large crowd watched the youth bludgeon the man convicted in the head and throat.
Western intelligence analysts long warned that poverty and shattered government institutions have primed Somalia as a breeding ground for Islamic extremism.
The United States and other governments are believed to be backing Somali counter-terrorism networks made up of faction leaders and former police officers. This strategy is said to have led to the capture of one key al-Qaida figure and the arrest of more than a dozen militants.
Last week Somalia's interim President Abdullahi Yusuf said openly that Washington was financing the warlords. In response to the allegations, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters the United States would "work with responsible individuals... in fighting terror. It's a real concern of ours -- terror taking root in the Horn of Africa. We don't want to see another safe haven for terrorists created."
A recent report by the International Crisis Group, a Brussels-based think tank, said that although militant groups with ties to al-Qaida continue to use Somalia as a base and transit point, there is little evidence the public is behind them.
"Somali militant movements have failed to gain broad popular support, encountering instead widespread hostility," said ICG. "The most remarkable feature is that Islamist militancy has not become more firmly rooted in what should, by most conventional assessments, be fertile ground."
The report affirmed that some courts have been "hijacked by jihadi leaders," but warned that outside efforts to crack down against the Islamist threat could actually boost the strength of militants, as Somalis are wary of foreign meddling.
Observers say the formation of the ARPTC is evidence of Somalia's fundamental rejection of militant Islam.
