Somalia death toll nears 100 with fresh fighting

By Aweys Yusuf and Abdi Sheikh

MOGADISHU (Reuters) - Militias allied to the Somali government recaptured a southern port from Islamists on Tuesday, as the death toll from an upsurge of fighting in recent days rose to nearly 100, witnesses said.

The militias recaptured Guda, which had been taken by the Islamists' militant al Shabaab wing on Monday, after overnight fighting that brought fatalities on both sides.

"The town is under our control. On both sides, five died and eight were wounded," said militiaman Abdisalan Hassan Bootan.

In Mogadishu, eight more corpses were found where Ethiopian troops backing the Somali government clashed with Islamist insurgents over the weekend.

And in Baidoa town, the seat of Somalia's parliament, masked gunmen shot dead a government intelligence officer.

That took the total death toll in violence since the weekend to 99, according to witnesses and a local rights group.

Branded terrorists by Washington, al Shabaab has led an Iraq-style insurgency against the government and its Ethiopian allies since early 2007.

The insurgency began when the Islamic Courts Union, of which Al Shabaab was a part, lost control of Mogadishu.