Somali feuding 'tit-for-tat' 01-19-2004.

Mogadishu - At least 13 people were killed and 27 wounded in two days of ongoing inter-clan fighting in central Somalia, local officials and witnesses said on Monday.

Fighting erupted on Sunday between rival militiamen of the Galjel subclan of the larger Hawiye group, said Abdullahi Abdi Koffi, the deputy district commissioner in the town of Beletwein.

"Ten people were killed early on Monday while three others died late on Sunday," Koffi added.

"Elders who attempted to stop the violence and arrange a ceasefire said that warring sides have refused to listen to them," Koffi said, adding that the fighting was continuing on Monday.

Militia sources and elders in the Somali capital confirmed the fighting, the latest in a series of tit-for-tat confrontations between the rival sides and which are rooted in earlier feuds.

Inter-clan fighting is common in Somalia, which has lacked a central government since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was toppled in 1991.

The regional Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD) has been sponsoring peace talks in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, aimed at ending anarchy and bloodshed in the Horn of Africa country.

Source: SA