50 dead in Mogadishu fighting

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Terrified Mogadishu residents hid in their homes from flying bullets in the battered capital on Thursday as fierce fighting between rival militias killed at least 50 people, witnesses said.

Firing mortars, grenades and anti-aircraft guns, militia linked to Islamic courts squared off with gunmen for a self-styled anti-terrorism coalition of warlords, in a resumption of the worst violence in Mogadishu for a decade.

"I am sure 50 people have died, the wounded are countless because mortars and missiles were hitting everywhere," Ali Nur, alliance militia member who was wounded in the fighting, told Reuters by telephone as he left the hospital.

By Thursday afternoon, the fighting in Kilometre Four area, where the main battle had taken place, had subsided. But it continued in the Galgato and Dayniile areas.