MOGADISHU At least 18 people were killed and 26 others wounded in heavy factional fighting in the southern Somali port town of Kismayo overnight, witnesses contacted by radio said on Friday. The fighting pitted militiamen of the Majerteen clan against their Marehan rivals. Eleven of the victims were killed inside the town and seven in the nearby village of Gobweyn. Several of the dead were civilians.

Commercial flights from Nairobi turned back before landing as fighting raged. More than 100 people have died since fighting between the two groups erupted in mid-April in Kismayo, 500 kilometres (300 miles) south of Mogadishu. (AFP)