15 killed in inter-clan fighting in Somalia

A clan elder in Somalia says a fight over land rights between two rival clans has killed at least 15 people.

A clan elder in Somalia says a fight over land rights between two rival clans has killed at least 15 people.

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Clan elder Abdulahi Bashir Jama says Saturday's fighting was triggered by long-standing hostilities over land ownership. The fighting took place in Amara village in the country's north, far from the capital of Mogadishu, where Islamist militants have been clashing with government troops.

Somalia has not had a functioning government for a generation, since clan warlords overthrew a socialist dictator in 1991. They then turned on each other, and the Islamist movement - which held the capital and much of the south for the second half of 2006 - was the first force that built lasting alliances across clan lines.