Two days of fighting kills 31 in Mogadishu

Fierce fighting between Somali government forces and Islamist rebels over two days has left 31 people dead in the capital Mogadishu, a medical source said Friday.

"The fighting was the worst in recent months with heavy civilian casualties, our medical teams collected 31 civilian bodies while 93 others were injured," Ali Muse, head of Mogadishu's ambulance service, told AFP.

"Most of the victims died as heavy artillery hit their houses," he added.

Government troops backed by African Union peacekeepers on Thursday launched an offensive to recapture positions taken by the hardline Islamist rebels in clashes earlier this week.

Twenty-six civilians were killed during Thursday's fighting and five others on Friday in sporadic fire exchanges, Muse said.

Both the government and the militants claimed victory and said there were casualties on both sides, the number of which were not confirmed.

"The enemy of Allah lost in the battle they organized. We destroyed one of their tanks and killed the five people on board," claimed Sheikh Muktar Robow, a top official of the Al-Qaeda-linked Shebab militia.

Government security official Colonel Mohamed Sugule said: "We have pushed the insurgents back to their positions and our forces are now controlling most parts of Abdulaziz and Shibis districts. We killed many of their fighters."

Somaliland seeks secession

Meanwhile, the newly-elected president of Somaliland, Ahmed Mohamud Silaanyo, vowed Friday to campaign "vigorously" for international recognition of his breakaway republic in the Horn of Africa.

"During my tenure as president I will vigorously fight for the recognition of Somaliland. The world must recognize our democracy," Silaanyo told AFP a day after the announcement of his election victory.

"The first part of recognition of our independence is acquired as our people recognize themselves as a free country. What we are seeking is recognition by the outside world," he said in an interview.

Silaanyo, a member of the dominant Issak clan, studied economics in Britain and served in the government of former Somali president Mohamed Siad Barre.

A former British colony tacked on to Somalia when the latter gained independence from Italy in 1960, Somaliland has remained reasonably stable, spared the clan warfare that has dogged Somalia thanks to the domination of the Issaks.