Somalia clashes kills 11, five headless bodies found

(Reuters) - The beheaded bodies of five builders have been found in Somalia's capital Mogadishu and at least 11 people were killed in fighting in the central region, residents and moderate militia fighters said on Wednesday.

Mogadishu residents said they suspected al Shabaab militants executed the builders for helping to construct Somalia's new parliament, an institution seen by the insurgents as home to stooges of the West.

No group has claimed responsibility for the killings.
"We have seen five beheaded men," one resident who gave his name only as Ali for fear of repercussions told Reuters. "Their bodies were covered with a little soil, except for their legs."

Al Shabaab, which controls vast tracts of southern and central Somalia, has previously executed Somalis its accuses of spying for the foreign-backed government as it fights to impose a harsh version of sharia law on the nation.

Fighting erupted in the central Somali towns of Gal'ad and Masagawa when al Shabaab rebels clashed with militiamen from the Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca, a moderate Sufi Muslim group which has signed a power-sharing pact with the government.

"We have seized the town of Gal'ad," said al Shabaab's spokesman, Sheikh Ali Mohamud Rage.

Ahlu Sunna confirmed the territorial loss and said it had killed 15 al Shabaab militants and lost two of their own. Rights group Elman put the death toll at 11, with 23 injured.

On Monday, a New York-based rights group accused the rebels of brutally repressing Somalis in the large swathes of south and central Somalia that they control.

Human Rights Watch said that while al Shabaab had brought a degree of stability to areas they controlled, they routinely killed civilians and meted out punishments including amputation.

Residents described a scene of carnage after the fighting. "The streets are horrific, bodies in the streets and others bodies in bush ... and trees," Muse Hoshow, a resident of Gal'ad told Reuters.

Western security agencies say Somalia's appeal as a safe haven for hardliners, including foreign jihadists using it to plot attacks in the region and beyond, is growing.

Somalia has lacked an effective central government since the ousting of a dictator 19 years ago, leaving the lawless nation awash in weapons and mired in violence.

The West's efforts to install a stable administration have been undermined most recently by the al Shabaab-led insurgency, which is considered al Qaeda's proxy in the region.