Mogadishu – Mogadishu’s chief of police and at least three civilians were killed in fighting in the Somali capital on Wednesday, witnesses and officials said.

Heavy fighting has convulsed the city since early May, when Islamist insurgent groups al-Shabaab and Hizbul Islam launched an offensive to oust President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.

Police spokesman Colonel Abdullahi Hassan Barise said that police chief Colonel Ali Said was killed as pro-government forces attacked insurgent bases in south Mogadishu, the BBC reported.

Witnesses told the German Press Agency dpa that a mortar landed on a house during the battles, killing at least three people in the building.

At least six people died on Tuesday when fighters from al-Shabaab attacked a government checkpoint outside Mogadishu.

The latest round of fighting has claimed the lives of more than 200 civilians and has sent over 120,000 fleeing Mogadishu.

Somalia has been embroiled in chaos since the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

The UN-backed appointment of Sheik Sharif, a former insurgent ally, raised hopes of peace earlier this year, but the insurgents say he is too close to the West.

The insurgency kicked off in early 2007 after Ethiopian forces invaded to oust the Islamic Courts Union, a group headed up by Sheikh Sharif and other prominent Islamists.

An estimated 18,000 civilians have been killed in the insurgency, while over a million have fled.

The insurgency, combined with drought, has left millions of Somalis dependent on food aid and has allowed piracy to flourish off the coast of the Horn of Africa nation.

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