MOGADISHU, Somalia, May 24 (UPI) -- At least six people are dead and six others wounded after a gun battle erupted in the Somali capital, Mogadishu, Tuesday breaking a tentative cease-fire.
The clash between gunmen loyal to Islamic courts and an alliance of warlords renewed fighting that killed more than 100 people ealier this month, according to the BBC.
The latest bout of violence broke out late Tuesday night as both sides exchanged machine gun fire and fired rocket propelled grenades ending a 10-day-old cease-fire brokered by tribal elders.
"We have lost one our men in the battle, and I am sure six of our rival men were killed," Abdi Dalab, a militia commander for alliance forces said.
Somalia has not had a functional government since the 1991 ouster of President Mohamed Siad Barre.
Some Somali activists say the Islamic courts have had a stabilizing effect on previously chaotic parts of the capital, while warlords counter the Islamists have links with al-Qaida and have committed extrajudicial killings.
Somalia's interim president, Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed, has accused Washington of financing the warlords in their alleged campaign to combat extremism. Washington has neither confirmed nor denied the claim.
