Gunmen kill senior Somali rebel leader - witnesses

MOGADISHU, March 9

Unidentified gunmen shot dead a senior official of the Somali rebel group Hizbul Islam in Mogadishu's main market on Tuesday, sparking several revenge killings, officials and witnesses said.

Hizbul Islam has often fought side-by-side with the more hardline al Shabaab rebels against government forces in a drive to topple Somalia's Western-backed administration.

But a battle for control of the lucrative southern port of Kismayu has pitted the two groups against each other.

"One of our senior officials, Bare Ali Bare, was assassinated in Bakara (market) today," Hizbul Islam spokesman Sheikh Mohamed told reporters.

"He tried to defend himself but his pistol ran out of bullets and he was killed on the spot. We do not really know who killed him."

A witness said he saw two masked men shooting at Bare.

"It is only al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam that can kill people in Bakara market. He was previously attacked in his room with grenades and we all anticipated he would one day fall into the hands of al Shabaab," witness Zakarie Hussein told Reuters.

The killing sparked further shootings in which four people died, witnesses said.

"Two men armed with pistols killed two al Shabaab members in Bakara market," shopkeeper Nor Omar told Reuters.

"One is a famous trader who is linked to al Shabaab, and the other one was an al Shabaab fighter. The men disappeared and they are suspected to be Hizbul Islam, which lost a very senior official this morning," he added.

Residents said gunmen killed two other al Shabaab members in Mogadishu's Hamar Bile and Huriwa villages, which are Hizbul Islam strongholds.

Somalia has had no effective central government for 19 years and Western nations and neighbours say the anarchic country serves as a shelter for Islamic militants intent on launching attacks in east Africa and further afield.

In a separate incident, three people died and four others were wounded when Islamists attacked government troops who were fighting each other on a road not far from the presidential palace, according to Ali Yasin Gedi, vice chairman of the human rights group Elman.

-Reuters