MOGADISHU, Somalia - Masked Islamic insurgents and Ethiopian-backed government forces pounded each other with machine-gun fire, mortars and heavy artillery in Somalia's wrecked capital Monday, bringing the death toll from six days of fighting to at least 250, a human rights group said.
Somalia Prime Minister Ali Mohamed Gedi said his interim government was winning the battle against the insurgents, but called for greater support from the international community.
"If we do not get international support the war may spread throughout the region and Africa," he told reporters. "These terrorists want to destabilize the whole region."
The latest fighting flared after Ethiopian and Somali government troops made a final military push to try to wipe out an Islamic insurgency that had controlled much of southern Somalia until it was defeated in January, Western diplomatic and Somali government officials told The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak to the media.
The government and its Ethiopian backers have been facing mounting pressure from the U.S., European Union and United Nations over the mounting civilian death toll and appear determined to bring order to the city before a planned national reconciliation conference in June, the Western and Somali officials said.
Mogadishu's clan and warlord militias also have joined the fight against the Ethiopians and government forces, but they switch loyalties easily. Mogadishu's dominant Hawiye clan has been behind the cease-fire and ordered key insurgents out of the capital to try and broker peace.
A bid earlier this month to wipe out the insurgency left more than 1,000 people dead, many of them civilians. More than 320,000 people have fled the fighting.
The United Nations said the fighting had sparked the worst humanitarian crisis in the war-ravaged country's recent history, with many of the city's residents trapped because the roads out of Mogadishu are blocked.
At least 18 civilians were killed and 21 wounded in Monday's fighting, said Sudan Ali Ahmed, the chairman of the Elman Human Rights Organization group. He said 19 insurgents were killed and 31 wounded but had no figures for Ethiopian or government casualties.
The new tallies bring the death toll in six days of fighting in Mogadishu to at least 250, with more than 291 wounded, according to the Elman Human Rights Organization group.
Rotting bodies have remained strewn across the streets for days, witnesses said, because it is too dangerous to retrieve them. Halime Ibrahim, who fled from south of the city, said she had seen 11 bodies. "I even failed to recognize if they were men or women," she told The Associated Press.
A Somali government official said Sunday that his government planned a major offensive against the insurgents soon and wanted residents of the capital to move from insurgent strongholds.
"People in Mogadishu should vacate their homes that are located near the strongholds of terrorists and we will crack down on insurgents and terrorists very soon," said Deputy Defense Minister Salad Ali Jelle.
In a separate development that could increase tension in the Horn of Africa, Eritrea suspended its membership in a regional body mediating the Somali conflict. Rivals Eritrea and Ethiopia have fought two wars over an unresolved border dispute and many experts say the Somalia conflict could become a proxy war between the two, with each backing different sides.
U.S. officials have said that Eritrea is backing the months-old Islamic insurgency in Mogadishu, an accusation Eritrea has denied.
Somalia has not had an effective national government since 1991, when warlords overthrew dictator Mohamed Siad Barre and then turned on one another, plunging the country into anarchy. The transitional government was formed in 2004 with UN help, but has struggled to extend its control over the country.
