8 Killed in Somali Militia Fighting; 9 Taken Hostage

Militiamen ambushed an aid convoy and attacked the compound of a French humanitarian aid group Tuesday, seizing nine relief workers, Somali officials said. A U.N. spokeswoman in neighboring Kenya said early today that five of the workers had been released.

Witnesses said at least eight Somalis were killed in the fighting in Mogadishu that stemmed from a feud between two groups, one of which was hired to protect the compound of the aid group Doctors Without Borders. As many as 30 people, mostly militiamen, were wounded, hospital sources said.

Interior Minister Dahir Mohammed Sheik said several people were injured and the compound looted. Government troops sent to intervene were engaged in a fierce battle with militiamen late Tuesday.

An official of the militia that assaulted the convoy--a faction headed by Musa Sudi Yalahow--said the nine relief workers were in three places under the faction’s control. An aide to Yalahow said none of the workers was injured, and “we’ll release them soon.”

Indeed, some were released by early today. “The five have been released into the charge of the transitional government,” said Sonya Laurence Green, spokeswoman of the Nairobi, Kenya-based U.N. Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator’s Office for Somalia.

The nine workers included two Spanish members and one French member of Doctors Without Borders. The others were U.N. workers--three Britons, an American, a Belgian and a sixth whose nationality was in dispute.

What began as a feud between the two rival groups has degenerated into a confrontation between the fledgling government in Mogadishu, the capital, and Yalahow, who opposes the regime.

After clashing Monday with the group that guards the Doctors Without Borders compound, Yalahow fighters on Tuesday attacked the convoy of aid workers. The workers had set out from the compound to conduct a cholera vaccination campaign, the aid group said. The convoy turned back to the compound with the gunmen in pursuit.

The nine workers were seized by the militiamen in the confusion that ensued amid the fighting in and around the compound. Twenty Somalis were employed at the compound, and it was not immediately known if they were among the dead.

The compound was looted, witnesses said. The building was badly damaged by machine guns, antiaircraft weapons and antitank rockets.