Somali Warlords Start Peace Talks
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Mogadishu, Somalia, Feb. 22, 2006 – The Somali capital, Mogadishu, is calm following four days of fighting between rival militias.
Local leaders, including traditional elders and the city mayor, met on Tuesday to discuss ceasefire plans.
More than 20 people died in the recent clashes, which were the most violent seen in the capital in several years.
Violence broke out when some militia leaders formed an alliance to fight supporters of unofficial Islamic Sharia courts that have emerged in Mogadishu.
Many of those killed were civilians hit by stray bullets.
'Scary'
A witness told AFP news agency on Tuesday that he had seen two people die and 15 wounded in a clash in southern Mogadishu's Daynile district.
"The place is full of blood and it is very scary," he said.
The main airstrip there, which is used by aid agencies and businessmen, was closed during the fighting.
Another witness told AP news agency that a woman was killed and two children injured when a mortar exploded near a milk factory.
Clashes between armed groups have been common in Somalia since former military leader Mohamed Siyad Barre was overthrown in 1991. The country has been without a functioning government since then.
Over the weekend, a group of MPs urged both sides to stop fighting.
The fighting pits a new group, the Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism, against the Islamic courts' militia.
But AP reports that gunmen from other groups have taken advantage of the fighting to go on a looting spree.
Scholars killed
Hundreds of families have fled their homes around the former military academy.
The BBC's Hassan Barise in Mogadishu says at least five warlords-cum-ministers in the transitional government are behind the new alliance, opposed to the Islamic courts.
The courts have set up Mogadishu's only judicial system in parts of the capital but have been accused of links to al-Qaeda.
Their critics accuse the courts of being behind the killing of moderate Muslim scholars.
On 26 February, the country's parliament is due to meet for the first time on home soil since it was formed in Kenya more than a year ago.
Source: BBC News
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