Six Killed in Somali Presidential Palace Clash

Fears mounted today that the Somali capital was reverting to lawlessness after several people were killed in a clash outside the presidential palace in the capital, Mogadishu.

Troops loyal to one clan leader fired a rocket-propelled grenade and exchanged gunfire with militiamen loyal to the president, Abdullahi Yusuf, who belongs to a rival clan.

The fighting, which one fighter said was sparked by a dispute over where to park an armoured car, left at least six people dead and 10 wounded.

The violence occurred as Mr Yusuf was holding peace talks with clan leaders inside the palace. A government official said the warlords had agreed to disarm and disband their militias and join a new national army. "The warlords and the government have agreed to collaborate for the restoration of peace in Somalia," said Abdirahman Dinari, a government spokesman.

Attacks against government troops and their Ethiopian backers have increased in frequency in recent days after the relative calm brought about six months ago when Islamist forces seized control of the capital.

Ethiopia sent troops into Somalia on December 24 in support of the weak transitional government, routing Islamist forces that had restored some semblance of stability across the country.

Most of the Islamist militiamen dispersed, but a few hardcore members fled south toward the Kenyan border and the Indian Ocean.

The British aid agency Oxfam today said US and Ethiopian air strikes against the fugitive Islamists in southern Somalia in recent days had mistakenly killed 70 nomadic herdsmen gathering round fires.

"Oxfam is receiving reports from its partner organisations in Somalia that nomadic herdsmen have been mistakenly targeted in recent bombing raids," the aid agency said in a statement.

US air strikes on Sunday against suspected al-Qaida terrorists in the south have attracted criticism from both the EU and the UN. But the US ambassador to Kenya, Michael Ranneberger, today denied that the action had killed any civilians.

In an article in the Kenyan paper the Daily Nation, Mr Ranneberger writes: "Contrary to press reports, US actions have included only one strike against a group of al-Qaida in southern Somalia. No civilians were injured as a result of this action."

In the piece, Mr Ranneberger also calls for an African peacekeeping force to preserve stability. "Quick deployment of African stabilisation forces will enable the rapid withdrawal of Ethiopian forces without creating a security vacuum," Mr Ranneberger says.

The African Union (AU) and east African body the Intergovernmental Authority on Development have said they are willing, in principle, to send more than 8,000 troops into Somalia. Uganda has said it is ready to provide the first battalion, but Kampala is nervous of the risks as the country has been in chaos since the dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991.

It is still unclear who would fund the mission, which nations would contribute and how quickly the force could be mustered. The inability of an AU force to protect civilians in Sudan's Darfur region does not bode well for any peacekeeping operation in Somalia.

The Washington Post reported that a small US military team entered southern Somalia after this week's air strike to try to find out who had been killed.

This would be the first known case of US ground forces returning to Somalia since the disastrous mission in 1994 that culminated in the shooting down of two Black Hawk helicopters and the killing of 18 US troops in Mogadishu. Hundreds of Somalis were killed in the battle.

Eritrea, which has accused the US of being behind the war in Somalia, today warned Washington that its involvement would "incur dangerous consequences".