MOGADISHU - At least eight people were killed and 14 wounded in southern Somalia on Sunday during clashes between formerly allied rival Somali insurgent groups, witnesses said.
Fighting began with an attack by the Shebab on Jana Abdala, a Hezb al-Islam-controlled village west of southern Somalia's main port of Kismayo, which was itself the scene of major fighting last week.
"Five Shebab and three Hezb al-Islam fighters were killed in fighting according to what we know for now," a Hezb al-Islam fighter said, requesting anonymity.
"The Shebab launched a major and well-organised offensive, they were repelled but they didn't go back to Kismayo and they could resume the offensive early," on Monday, said inhabitant Mohammed Abdi.
Kismayo, about 300 kilometres (185 miles) south of Mogadishu, was wrested from government forces in August and had been an insurgent bastion ever since but relations between the two groups soured in recent weeks.
The two factions had agreed to share power in Kismayo, with each governing for six months alternatively, but clan politics seeped in and the rotation failed when the Shebab refused to relinquish the administration.
For almost five months, the two armed factions had led a bruising campaign to oust government fighters from key towns and topple cleric President Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.
Firmly under rebel control for more than year, Kismayo had been relatively quiet until last week.
The Shebab has been taking extreme stances since it broke away from the Islamic Courts Union (ICU), who ruled much of Somalia with relative peace and prosperity until the Ethiopian invasion late 2006.
After the Ethiopian troops ousted the ICU, Somalia plunged into unprecedented chaos, where warlords and pirates have returned to the scene.
The US-backed Ethiopian troops in Somalia had resorted to throat-slitting executions and gruesome methods that include rape and torture.
As a result, the Shebab has become increasingly radicalised and has spearheaded an insurgency against the Somali government, whose president today is a former ICU leader.
Despite the Ethiopian withdrawal, it is unlikely that Somalis would soon be returning to the period of calm and security enjoyed under ICU rule.
The US and its allies in the region, who were not happy with the then relatively popular and stable ICU, will likely to face a non-negotiating force when dealing with the Shebab.
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