Somali Islamists say battle erupts with northerners

MOGADISHU, Nov 6 (Reuters) Fighting flared today between Islamist forces and troops from the semi-autonomous enclave of Puntland in the north of Somalia, which many fear is on the verge of all-out war, the Islamists said.

The Islamists said soldiers from Puntland -- whose leaders oppose the religious movement's aim to put all Somalia under sharia rule -- ambushed them in the morning backed by fighters loyal to a warlord kicked out of Mogadishu earlier this year.

''We were attacked this morning by Puntland troops armed with heavy technicals,'' Islamist defence chief Sheikh Yusuf Mohamed Siad ''Inda'ade'' told reporters in Mogadishu, using the Somali term for pickups turned into battle-wagons.

''They ambushed our troops when they were sleeping.'' Islamist sources said the fighting was taking place near Galinsoor, which lies about 60 km south of Puntland.

Authorities from Puntland, who have frequently vowed to resist any attempted Islamist expansion from the south into their province, could not be immediately reached.

If confirmed, the clash would be the first violence since peace talks between the Islamists and Somalia's interim government broke down in Sudan last week.

One Islamist commander in the field told Reuters his men were under fire from a combination of Puntland forces and fighters loyal to a warlord formerly based in Mogadishu.

''We were attacked by Puntland troops accompanied by fighters loyal to Abdi Qaybdiid,'' he said. ''They attacked us with lots of heavy weapons and 'technicals','' he added.

There was no immediate information on casualties.

SHARIA COURT The Islamists took Mogadishu and a swathe of the south in June in direct challenge to the aspirations of President Abdullahi Yusuf's government to restore central rule to the chaotic country for the first time in 15 years.

The Islamists had moved in recent months to Galkaayo on the border with Puntland. It largely runs its own affairs and is the hom of Somalia's interim government President Abdullahi Yusuf, who is now based in the southern town of Baidoa.

Islamist defence boss Mohamed said Puntland president Adde Muse had been ''waging propaganda'' against the Islamists since they set up a new sharia court in Galkaayo.

''We have been sitting there for four months,'' he added.

Thousands of troops from Ethiopia -- which regards the Islamists as terrorists -- are said by witnesses to be both inside Puntland to bolster its forces and in Baidoa.

Addis Ababa denies that, saying only that it has sent a few hundred military trainers to Baidoa.

Eritrea is also accused of arming the Islamists, heightening diplomats' fears that conflict in Somalia could quickly widen into a devastating Horn of Africa war. Ethiopia and Eritrea are bitter foes and themselves fought a 1998-2000 border war.

Today's flare-up came as the interim parliament speaker, Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan, was in Mogadishu to try and revive the peace process, which stalled in Khartoum on Islamist demands that Ethiopian troops leave Somali soil.

Both the Islamists and the interim government's forces are facing off near Buur Hakaba, a town just 30 km from Baidoa on the road to Mogadishu.

Critics of the Islamists say they harbour al Qaeda-linked extremists. Islamist leaders deny that and say they simply want to restore law and order to the nation of eight million people.

REUTERS SP RAI1620