Heavy shelling has shaken the Somali capital as Ethiopian forces continue to battle fighters opposed to Somalia's transitional government for the sixth straight day.

Mohamed, a resident close to the scene of the clashes, said: "Anybody who has any means of fleeing the area has left."

After a night of sporadic fire, heavy explosions hit Mogadishu's northern districts on Monday, residents said.

Mukhtar Mohamed, a resident of Fagah in northern Mogadishu, said: "I have seen Ethiopian tanks taking positions and heavily shelling insurgent positions.

"The fighting is heavier [than] yesterday, the rivals are exchanging machine guns, mortar and anti-aircraft fire."

Bodies abandonded

Several civilians have been trapped in the area as scores of rotting corpses lay abandoned on the streets, where Ethiopian tanks and modified pick-up trucks raced with fighters aboard firing recklessly.

Hussein Said Korgab, the spokesman for the Hawiye clan, Mogadishu's largest, said: "The fighting is very heavy and the casualties are steadily increasing everyday. The Ethiopian forces are hitting civilians indiscriminately."

The clashes, which erupted on Wednesday, have so far killed 219 civilians and wounded hundreds others, according to the Elman Peace and Human Rights Organisation which tracks casualty figures.

This week's flare-up alone has displaced at least tens of thousands and destroyed property of massive value, Korgab said.

He said: "At least 70,000 have evacuated their homes. Property worth $500m has been destroyed. The Ethiopian and government forces will take ultimate responsibility for all these mess."

Continuing exodus

Hundreds of civilians, clutching their personal belongings, took advantage of relative calmness in southern Mogadishu and fled their neighbourhoods.

They are part of an ever-increasing exodus from the city that is now wracked by the worst fighting since 1991, when Mohamed Siad Barre, Somalia's then-military ruler, was deposed.

Hassan Mohamed, a resident of Waberi area in southern Mogadishu, said: "We have to flee because there is no hope of staying in this town. We are afraid that the fighting is getting worse everyday."

Bur Dheere, a mother of three, while boarding a packed pick-up truck, said: "We have no place to stay in this town. Everywhere in Mogadishu is the same: death. We are running away until we reach a safer place.

"Everytime news comes, it is bad news of the death. We must leave until we have confirmed that this place is safer for human habitation."

The United Nations says about 321,000 people have fled Mogadishu since February. Many are camped under trees and makeshift hovels in the city's outskirts, without supplies and where disease outbreaks have been reported.

National instability

Ethiopian troops helped Somalia's interim government oust the Union of Islamic Courts from the country's south and central regions in January.

But since then, fighting has steadily grown worse as the remaining fighters, backed by disgruntled Hawiye clansmen continue to fight, vowing to defeat the interim government and drive out foreign forces from the country.

On Sunday, Ali Mohamed Gedi, Somalia's Ethiopian-backed prime minister, vowed to crack down on the fighters, some of whom are allegedly linked to the al-Qaeda network of Osama bin Laden.

On the Mogadishu-based Shabelle radio, he said: "Until the terrorists are wiped out from Somalia, the fighting will go on."

Somalia has lacked an effective government ever since Barre's removal from power touched off a deadly power struggle that has defied more than 14 attempts to create a government that can stabilise the country of about 10 million.

PHOTO CAPTION

A man wounded in a mortar attack is evacuated at the scene of an attack in the southern neighbourhood of Bakara in the embattled capital Mogadishu, 21 April 2007. (AFP)

Al-Jazeera