Thousands of residents fled bomb-blasted north Mogadishu on Tuesday where the worst fighting in months between Islamist militants and the government has killed at least 113 civilians, according to a rights group.
Hard-line Islamist group al Shabaab and the government are battling for control of the capital and south Somalia, where 18 years of war has destabilised the region, created hundreds of thousands of refugees, drawn in foreign armies and militants, and spawned an unprecedented wave of piracy offshore.
The Elman Peace and Human Rights Organisation said battles between al Shabaab and pro-government forces had wounded 330 people in the Horn of Africa state since the end of last week. It said at least 27,000 civilians had fled the city. The bloodshed has caused splits in both heavily armed sides: there was a deadly clash on Monday between police and soldiers, then a rift broke out in the opposition after a veteran warlord stoked rivalries between two insurgent factions.
Sheikh Yusuf Mohamed Siad, also known as "Inda'ade" or "white eyes", handed control of his hundreds of fighters and 19 battle wagons - pickup trucks mounted with heavy weapons - to Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys, another senior opposition leader.
That angered Shabaab leaders, who are also fighting the country's fragile new government. Washington accuses both Aweys and the Shabaab group of having links to al Qaeda. "Shabaab wants to behead Sheikh Yusuf," said a relative of Inda'ade, Aden Hussein. "They ordered (Aweys) to give him up and his weapons, but Aweys said he prefers to fight Shabaab."