Ethiopian tanks supporting the Somali government pounded insurgent positions in Mogadishu today and Somalia's prime minister declared significant gains after a nine-day offensive.
Following the latest attack, Ali Mohamed Gedi said "most fighting" had ended and allied Somali-Ethiopian troops were clearing "pockets of resistance".
Locals say this month's clashes have killed some 300 people, mostly civilians, and emptied large parts of the city. "Most of the fighting in Mogadishu is now over. The government has captured a lot of territory where the insurgents were," Mr Gedi told a news conference.
Artillery and machinegun fire could still be heard in northern parts of the devastated coastal capital. Mr Gedi urged clan militia, who have joined the ranks of Islamist gunmen and foreign jihadists in fighting the government, to return home and stay there until his administration could incorporate them into a new national army.
The battles have shattered whole neighbourhoods of Mogadishu, forcing about a third of its residents to flee. The United Nations said the exodus of nearly 340,000 people was fast turning Mogadishu into a "ghost city" and tens of thousands of refugees were suffering appalling conditions.
The top UN aid official warned all sides in the conflict today they were breaking humanitarian law by firing indiscriminately on civilian areas. "All factions are equally guilty of indiscriminate violence in a civilian area," the UN emergency relief co-ordinator John Holmes told a news conference.
He urged international donors quickly to meet a $262 million UN appeal for Somalia which was so far only 36 per cent met.