Battles rage in Somalia, world calls for calm

By Abdi Sheikh and Abdi Guled

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Militiamen loyal to the government battled Islamist al Shabaab fighters in Somalia on Wednesday despite calls from around the world for a halt to the country's worst fighting in months.

Years of conflict have sucked in foreign militants, confounded 15 attempts to establish a central government, killed tens of thousands, displaced millions and created a security vacuum that has spawned piracy and other criminal activity.

Since the weekend, the capital Mogadishu has been rocked by mortar and machine gun fire as Islamist rebels try to topple President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed's government. The violence has killed at least 113 civilians, and thousands have fled the city.

"Tension is high, and more people are expected to die or evacuate this month," said Yasin Ali Gedi, vice chairman of the Mogadishu-based Elman Peace and Human Rights group.

"Powerful groups are confronting in the city."

There were more deaths and injuries in the first week of May than the four previous months, he told Reuters.

Fierce clashes between Shabaab and a more moderate Islamist militia, Ahlu Sunna, in the central region killed at least five people on Tuesday in Mahas town, witnesses said.

"Al Shabaab fighters ran into a mosque for refuge, but residents kept firing at them with rocket-propelled grenades," local man Aden Hussein said by telephone from Mahas, which lies southwest of El Bur, a major Shabaab stronghold since 2006.