Somali battles kill over 100

By Abdi Sheikh

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Battles between rival Islamist groups in central Somalia have killed 123 people, a rights group said on Saturday, and a pro-government militia said militant rebel leader Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys had died in the fighting.

Aweys' militia denied that as propaganda.

Witnesses said scores of bodies lay in the streets of Wabho town after fighters from the hardline al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam groups battled moderate Islamist group Ahla Sunna Waljamaca for control. Most of the deaths were on Friday.

The local Elman Peace and Human Rights Organisation said it had confirmed 123 fighters killed in one of the worst flare-ups of the year in the conflict-riven Horn of Africa nation.

An Islamist insurgency that broke out in early 2007 -- the latest in 19 years of conflict in Somalia -- has killed around 18,000 civilians and thousands more fighters.

It has also drawn foreign jihadists into Somalia, enabled piracy to flourish offshore, and unsettled the whole region, putting East African neighbours on high security alert.

In Mogadishu, al Shabaab have been battling the security forces of President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed. In the central region, pro- and anti-government Islamist militia have been fighting all year, with towns changing hands regularly.

DEAD OR ALIVE?