WORLD : Fighting Rages in Somali Capital

Fighting raged in Somalia’s capital today, preventing Italian planes from evacuating more foreigners, officials said. But a few others were plucked out by helicopter.

Rebel radio, monitored in Nairobi, claimed that the insurgents, who began their offensive Dec. 30, controlled almost all of the capital, Mogadishu, and that only the airport remained in government hands.

“You see before your very eyes the collapse of the fascist regime,” the broadcast said. “Brothers, oppression is over.”

The whereabouts of President Mohamed Siad Barre, who has ruled the Horn of Africa nation for 21 years, remained unknown. He has not been seen publicly since the clan-based uprising began in the nation of 8 million people.