NAIROBI, Kenya -- Fighting for control of Somalia raged Tuesday and both the rebels and government claimed they were in power in the African nation's capital Mogadishu following battles that left hundreds dead or injured.
Who controlled what in Mogadishu was a subject of dispute, with unconfirmed media reports carrying government and rebels claims contradicting each other. Telephone and Telex links to the Arab nation at the Horn of Africa had been severed.
African and Arab diplomats said the battling wore on Tuesday and casualties were mounting.
Serious fighting erupted in the capital Sunday, culminating a month of increasing chaos marked by tribal killings and looting and the flight of most Mogadishu-based foreign diplomats to neighboring Kenya.
Rebels contended Tuesday that they had surrounded a bunker near a military airport where they said President Mohamed Siad Barre was hiding after fleeing his palace when the fighting intensified Sunday.
But Somali Foreign Minister Ahmad Mohammed Aden was quoted telling reporters in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, that Siad Barre remained at the presidential palace.
'President Siad Barre is still at his official residence,' the Qatari news agency quoted Aden as saying during a stopover en route to the Qatari capital Dohar. 'Government troops are fighting bandits.'
Aden also told the British Broadcasting Corp. that the fighting was restricted to one or two areas of the capital and Somali security forces were in control. The government, he said, was in no danger.
A rebel spokesman had reported Monday guerrillas occupied the palace.
The Italian news agency ANSA, however, reported Prime Minister Mohamed Hawladeh Madar was quoted as saying over government radio Tuesday that loyal troops had ousted rebels from key points in the city, including the district where the palace is located.
The report, saying Madar had spoken on government radio, contradicted rebel claims that they had seized the national radio and television stations.
A spokesman for the Somali National Movement, the largest of three rebel groups who have joined a loose alliance to overthrow Barre, said in Rome that fighting Monday had included the 'massive use of heavy weapons (causing) hundreds of victims, also among civilians.'
ANSA quoted African diplomats confirming several hundred dead, with corpses lying in the streets of the capital and wounded being treated in hotels. A nation of 8 million, Somalia borders Ethiopia, Kenya and Djibouti and is no stranger to war and famine since independence in 1960 from Britain.
The Libyan news agency JANA, according to a report monitored by the BBC, said Libya was trying to provide food supplies to Mogadishu, 'whose inhabitants have been living under difficult food conditions as a result of the power struggle.'
The rebel United Somali Congress said in a communique released in Rome Tuesday their forces 'have completed their control of Mogadishu.' It said there was fierce fighting at the Mogadishu military airport where the rebels earlier reported Siad Barre had sought refuge after fleeing the presidential palace.
In a later communique, the USC claimed its guerrillas had surrounded the bunker near the airport where they said President Siad Barre was holed up. 'The capture of the dictator is only a matter of time,' they said.
The statement appealed 'to world public opinion and to democratic states to intervene promptly to stop the massacre and send urgently to Somalia food, medicine and fuel supplies.' It said the rebels feared an 'unstoppable epidemic' would break out among the population indirectly involved in the fighting.
The guerrilla organization also said that 'after the liberation of Somalia it intends to convoke a round-table conference of all opposition movements to devise a common line for the political system in Somalia and to put into effect the democratic principles that have inspired the just struggle aimed at restoring democracy and respect for civil rights in the country.'
Siad Barre, who has ruled the country since seizing power in a bloodless coup in 1969, had moved in December to blunt mounting opposition by announcing the legalization of a multi-party political system he outlawed in 1976 and calling on the nation to prepare for elections.
The mainly northern Somali National Movement, which was formed in 1981 to depose Barre, in August joined forces with the smaller, centrally based USC and the southern Somali Patriotic Front. The SNM rejected Barre's call for elections, describing it as 'the last kicks of a crumbling regime.'
The Africa Watch human rights group last year accused Barre's government of 'massive human rights abuses' and said his government had only taken superficial steps toward democratic reform.
Egypt will try to set up a meeting in Cairo in the next few weeks between rival forces in Somalia.
'The attempt will be part of Egypt's efforts to achieve peace in Somalia,' Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Butros Ghali said in a statement.
Cairo maintains good relations with Barre and rebel forces in the African Arab state.
Foreign Minister Esmat Abdel Meguid said Tuesday that Egypt would attempt to evacuate the estimated hundreds of its nationals living in Somalia.
