Mortars, machine guns and rockets pounded Mogadishu today in a seventh day of fierce militia fighting that has killed at least 138 people so far and which looks set to intensify.
As the street battles dragged on in rundown areas of the Somali capital, the interim government -- powerless to stop the shooting and unable to enter Mogadishu - called for foreign intervention to end the worst fighting there in years.
At least five civilians were killed overnight and into today as gunmen from a powerful alliance of warlords engaged in close-range firefights and artillery duels with militiamen backed by the city's influential Islamic courts.
US Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer
Analysts view the fighting in the failed Horn of Africa state as a proxy battle between al-Qaeda and Washington, which is widely believed to be funding the warlords.
The warring parties were massing militiamen and another warlord, Mohamed Dheere, was said by residents to be on his way to Mogadishu from his stronghold in Jowhar to join the battle, foreshadowing more combat.
By Saturday, the battle was in the northern residential area of Karan, having spread beyond the neighbouring shanty towns of Siisii and Yaqshid.
Most of the dead and many among the hundreds who were wounded were non-combatants. Residents continued to flee the battle zones, taking basic possessions with them.
The interim government, now based in the southern city of Baidoa because it is unable to exert much control in the country of ten million, appealed for humanitarian aid for the victims. "We ... call upon and invite the international community to intervene and get involved in the crucial situation in Mogadishu by ... cooperating fully with the Somali transitional federal government to rescue the innocent suffering people," Information Minister Mohamed Abdi Hayir said in a statement.
Already, the perception of a foreign hand in Mogadishu - namely the United States - has stoked the fighting between the Islamic militias and the warlord coalition, which dubbed itself "Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism."
Interim President Abdullahi Yusuf and Islamic leaders have accused Washington of financing the warlords.
But the top US diplomat in Africa yesterday said she did not know if anti-terrorism warlords battling for control of Mogadishu got US backing. "But our policy is very clear. We will work with those elements that will help us to root out al-Qaeda and to prevent Somalia becoming a safe haven for terrorists, and we are doing it in the interests of protecting America," Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs Jendayi Frazer said.
The United States has long seen Somalia, without a central government since warlords ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991, as a likely hideout for terrorists.