Bodies Strewn Everywhere, Somalia Evacuees Report : East Africa: Rebels say they have launched their final offensive to end President Siad Barre’s 21-year rule.

Evacuees from Somalia’s capital on Sunday told of a city in smoke, with large sections blasted and burned in street battles between rebel and government forces that left “corpses decomposing everywhere.”

The rebels said Sunday they had launched their final offensive to end President Mohamed Siad Barre’s 21-year rule in the Horn of Africa nation of 8 million. The rebels say more than 1,500 people have died in eight days of fighting.

On Saturday, American and Italian aircraft evacuated hundreds of foreigners, but the heavy fighting prevented Italian cargo planes from continuing the rescue operation Sunday, Italian officials said.

They said Italy will attempt a sea rescue on Tuesday if its planes have not been able to land by then. The United States said it has rescued more than 250 Americans and other foreigners from Mogadishu and that all Americans have been evacuated.

Similarly, Tass news agency and Moscow television Sunday quoted the Soviet Foreign Ministry as saying that all Soviet nationals have left Somali territory safely.

Egyptian sources reported that a Saudi airliner managed to land Sunday in Mogadishu, the capital, on a separate mission to rescue Arabs trapped by the fighting.

Scores of foreign evacuees, mostly women and children, Sunday recounted the horror in Somalia’s capital. They arrived a day earlier at this Indian Ocean port aboard Italian cargo planes.

They said that large, primarily residential areas in the northwestern section of Mogadishu have been turned to rubble.

“There are corpses decomposing everywhere in those areas,” said a Swedish woman, who spoke on condition of anonymity. “People just step aside, and nobody does anything.”

Many of the foreigners did not want to be identified, saying they hesitated to speak openly until their relatives and friends were safely out of Somalia.

The evacuees accused Siad Barre’s troops of killing civilians and widespread looting since the rebel offensive intensified on Dec. 30.

“One member of my staff went home by bus and a military car came up behind and tried to pass,” the Swedish woman said. “The bus didn’t move over quickly enough and they started shooting. Two men on the bus were killed.”

Siad Barre, who during his long rule has maneuvered the country through shifting alliances with the Soviets and the United States, long has been accused of human rights abuses.

The main rebel group, the United Somali Congress, has refused to negotiate with the president.

In Rome, the congress said Sunday that its fighters, reinforced by armed vehicles and insurgents from the countryside, have launched their “final assault” on the airport, where they claim Siad Barre is holed up.

Diplomats and other sources, however, have denied that Siad Barre has taken refuge in an airport bunker. They say he has been at the presidential palace.

Several evacuees told of robbing, looting and killing of civilians by government soldiers, of large sections of the city destroyed by bombardments and resulting fires and of the incessant sound of shellfire and the smell of smoke.