By Aweys Yusuf and Abdi Sheikh
MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Four Somali policemen and threecivilians have been killed in the heaviest fighting for weeksbetween government troops and suspected Islamist-led insurgentsin the capital Mogadishu, witnesses said on Tuesday.
Residents said battles broke out on Monday evening aroundthe sprawling Bakara Market, which the authorities say is ahotbed of rebel activity. Locals cowered in their homes as bothsides exchanged artillery rounds and bursts of machine-gunfire.
"I saw four dead men in police uniforms lying in thestreet," said one witness, Abdi Hassan.
Another resident, Faiza Ahmed, said a government truckmounted with heavy weaponry burned nearby as masked gunmenarmed with assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades brieflymanned a major junction abandoned by government forces.
Witnesses said one stray mortar round killed an elderly manwhen it hit his home in an area next to the market.
Dahir Mohamed Mohamud, deputy director of Mogadishu'sMadina Hospital, said 11 people wounded in the fighting hadbeen admitted and two of them had died in the emergency room.
Violence has worsened in recent weeks in Somalia's coastalcapital, where the interim government and its Ethiopianmilitary allies face an insurgency by the remnants of ahardline sharia courts group they chased out of the city justover a year ago.
Hundreds of under-equipped African Union peacekeepers fromUganda and Burundi have been unable to quell the bloodshed.
Government officials were not immediately available tocomment on the latest fighting. Early on Tuesday, scores ofSomali troops and police patrolled the Bakara area, searchingpedestrians and vehicles for weapons.
"A huge number of government forces were engaged in searchoperations inside the market," said market trader MohamedOsman.
"I wanted to open my shop but I couldn't because I wasafraid I'd be caught in the middle of gunfire like yesterday."
An elder from Mogadishu's dominant Hawiye clan accusedadministration officials of plotting to wipe out the market.
"As Hawiye elders we condemn the government's actionsagainst the civilians doing their businesses there," MohamedHassan Haad told Reuters by telephone.
"Bakara is not a base for insurgents or for any otheranti-government group. The main reason why the governmentblames the market is it wants to loot it."
In separate violence in southern Somalia overnight,militiamen loyal to Mogadishu's ousted Islamic Courts groupattacked Doble, a small town just across the border from Kenya.
Ahmed Nur Dalab, chairman of the area's traditional elderscouncil, said the heavily armed gunmen destroyed video hallsand killed the owner of a movie and music rental shop.
(Additional reporting by Sahra Ahmed in Kismayu; Writing byDaniel Wallis; Editing by Giles Elgood)
