Somali rebel groups fight in southern port

Fighting between rival Islamist rebel groups erupted in the southern Somali port of Kismayu on Thursday, killing at least three people and threatening to spread to other parts of the failed Horn of Africa state.

Witnesses in Kismayu said al Shabaab gunmen and their one-time allies from Hizbul Islam attacked each other across the port. Hundreds of civilians fled. Others cowered in their homes.

"The battle has started everywhere in the city. There are heavy exchanges of bullets and we can see militia taking part in the fighting," resident Deqo Ali told Reuters by telephone.

Abdullahi Ali, a nurse at the hospital, said at least three people had been killed.

"They are using heavy weapons everywhere," he said.

The confrontation in Kismayu had been brewing for days and Hizbul Islam leaders had threatened to fight al Shabaab "everywhere" in Somala if clashes began at the rebel-held port, a lucrative source of taxes and other income.

One Hizbul Islam commander in Kismayu said Thursday's clashes began when al Shabaab gunmen attacked his group. An al Shabaab spokesman said their forces would defeat Hizbul.

Security analysts say Somalia has become a safe haven for militants, including foreign jihadists, and Washington says al Shabaab is al Qaeda's proxy in the country.

Relations between al Shabaab and Hizbul Islam degenerated last week after al Shabaab named its own council to run Kismayu, excluding all Hizbul members. Until then, the two groups had run the port in an uneasy coalition.

Western donors have long hoped hardliners in al Shabaab could be isolated by a deal between more moderate Hizbul Islam leaders and the country's fragile U.N.-backed administration.

President Sheikh Sharif Ahmed has so far failed to lure top Hizbul Islam figures to his side but a feud between the two main rebel groups could give his government some breathing space.