Somali security forces and Islamic insurgents engaged in one of the fiercest gunbattles in recent weeks in the capital on Friday. At least 17 people were killed and six were wounded according to police and witnesses. The two-hour clash erupted when insurgents attacked the house of a local government official, residents in Mogadishu said. One of them, Dahir Mohamed, said he counted 15 bodies of young men on the street after the skirmish was over. It was not immediately clear if the dead were civilians or insurgents, police officer Abdinur Salad said two soldiers were killed in the clash and another six soldiers were wounded.

In December 2006, Somali soldiers and their Ethiopian allies ousted the Islamists from the capital and much of southern Somalia that the Islamists had ruled for six months. Since then, the Islamic militants have fought an insurgency, mainly in Mogadishu, that has killed thousands of civilians and sent an estimated half of the capital's 2 million people fleeing from near-daily bombings and attacks.

The insurgents have become increasingly brazen in recent weeks, seizing control of more territory in southern Somalia. Their representatives in Mogadishu regularly hold news conferences and carry out floggings in the parts of the capital they control, whereas only a few months ago they were careful not to be seen in the open.

But the Islamists are split and at times compete for control of the same key towns, unlike in 2006 when they operated under one umbrella group.

Somalia has not had a functioning government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and turned on each other.