
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: TUESDAY, October 26, 1993                   TAG: 9310260240
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: By From The Washington Post and The Associated Press
DATELINE: MOGADISHU, SOMALIA                                LENGTH: Short

RIVAL CLANS END TRUCE IN SOMALIA

Somalia's worst inter-clan fighting in seven months erupted Monday, undercutting U.N.-sponsored peace talks and posing a fresh challenge to the growing U.S. combat presence in the city.

U.N. officials said at least 10 Somalis were killed and 45 wounded in Mogadishu. The final toll was expected to be higher.

United Nations combat troops and their American partners did not intervene in the fighting. A U.N. military spokesman said the emphasis was still on "political dialogue."

Mogadishu reverberated with sporadic small-arms and heavy-machine-gun fire and the ear-splitting bang of rocket-propelled grenades. The fighting, which involved four separate clashes, continued Monday evening. It was the first major breach in Mogadishu of an unsteady truce arranged in March in a reconciliation agreement among Somalia's clan militias.

The violence began Monday morning when the militia of Mohamed Farrah Aidid clashed with that of his archrival, Mohamed Ali Mahdi, along the front between them that divides the city. Several thousand of Mahdi's Abgal subclan had assembled in the territory of Aideed's Habr Gedir subclan for a "peace march" - a move Aidid denounced as provocative.

By early afternoon, fighting had spread. Gunfire continued into early this morning.

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by CNB