Fighting flares in Mogadishu, at least 60 dead

MOGADISHU, July 10 (Reuters) New fighting erupted today between Somali fighters loyal to defeated warlords and the country's Islamists militias, and the death toll tripled to at least 60 since Sunday, a hospital official said.

''I am sure that more than 60 have died so far,'' Abdikadir Sheikh, a medical official at Mogadishu's Madina Hospital, told Reuters by phone as artillery and gunfire crackled behind him.

Residents of Mogadishu's Kilometre Five area said the death toll had risen by at least 40 and nearly 100 had been wounded since yesterday's heavy street battles broke out at dawn in the neighbouring Kilometre Four area.

Witnesses said artillery and mortar shells were raining down on Kilometre Five after the battle broke out this afternoon after a morning lull and shifted areas, cutting many victims off from Madina Hospital.

''The hospital is under very heavy mortar and artillery attack and stray bullets are hitting. Chaos is everywhere in the hospital and staff are running away,'' Sheikh said.

REUTERS KD ND1804