Islamic militia, which has been fighting with an alliance of warlords since February, claimed control of Somali capital of Mogadishu Monday, according to reports reaching Nairobi from Mogadishu. More than 300 were killed and 1,700 wounded in the fighting, many of them civilians.

The militia declared the victory through radio broadcast, but this has yet to be verified as a result of chaos in the city of the Horn of Africa nation, which had been in anarchy since 1991, when warlords overthrew the last government.

The battle between the militia and the warlord alliance has escalated in recent months. The UN-backed interim government, which was set up in Kenya in 2004 and now based in Baidoa, 250 kilometers from Mogadishu, has accused Washington of funding the alliance and contributing to instability.

The United States, which accuses the Islamists of harboring extremists, including Al-Qaeda members, has said it were "wrongly blamed" for the fighting but has refused to confirm or deny the allegation.

(Xinhua News Agency June 6, 2006)