Mogadishu: Clashes between Islamist militia have killed at least 29 people and wounded more than 50 others in central Somalia, witnesses said today.

The fighting in the town of Guriel between the hardline al-Shabab militia and a local Islamist militia coincides with the gradual evacuation of Ethiopian forces loyal to Somalia s tottering UN-backed government. Somali officials have warned that a power vacuum would spark intensified fighting.

Al-Shabab lost control of Guriel, 370 km north of the capital, last month and a local militia commander said they had failed to retake it.

"We killed dozens of the attackers, including their commander, we have also seized most of their weapons that they abandoned in fear," said Sheik Abdullahi Abu Yusuf, spokesman for the Islamist group Ahlu-sunah Wal-jamea.

The US State Department says al-Shabab are linked to al-Qaida and harbour fugitives who planned twin bombings of American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania ten years at killed hundreds of people.

Al-Shabab promotes a strict version of Islamic law and has stoned to death a 13-year-old girl for adultery even though her parents said she was a rape victim. Yusuf s group promotes Islam but says it is opposed to some of al-Shabab s actions, including the destruction of the tombs of locally respected religious leaders.

The local hospital and clinics in the area said around 50 people had been injured in the fighting and patients were still arriving today afternoon.

There have been several clashes between Islamist groups in Somalia in recent weeks.
Source : PTI