At least 12 killed in Mogadishu fighting

Fighting erupted in Mogadishu's southwest Medina district on Monday morning, leaving at least 12 people dead and an unknown number of others wounded, local sources told IRIN on Tuesday. The fighting broke out at 1000 local time (0700 GMT) when militia loyal to Mogadishu faction leader Muse Sudi Yalahow attacked supporters of Umar Mahmud Muhammad Finish, his former right-hand man and deputy, a local resident said. Both Yalahow and Finish belong to the Da'ud subclan of the Abgal clan. The fighting died down on Monday evening, but resumed on Tuesday "when Yalahow forces supported by troops of [faction leader] Husayn Aydid attacked our positions", Abdullahi Shaykh Hasan, a spokesman for Finish, told IRIN. The fighting started when Yalahow's forces tried to recapture the Jazira airstrip, which is currently controlled by troops loyal to Finish, Abdullahi said. Yalahow lost the airstrip last December. According to other sources, Finish's forces destroyed a "technical" (pick-up mounted with heavy weapons) belonging to Yalahow and captured an unarmed pick-up. The same sources said the death toll was likely to be higher than the figure being reported "because many civilians are being buried where they died". Yalahow is the leader of the United Somali Congress/Somali Salvation Alliance and a senior member of the Somali Reconciliation and Restoration Council (SRRC), a grouping of southern factions opposed to the Transitional National Government (TNG) of Somalia. Finish, on the other hand, joined the factions which signed a peace deal with the TNG in the Kenyan town of Nakuru last year - he is now a TNG ally. There is a reported lull in the fighting, but "no actual truce has been agreed", Abdullahi said.