Somali clan clash kills 25

MOGADISHU, Somalia (Reuters) -- At least 25 people were killed and 18 wounded in a clash between heavily armed rival militias in Somalia, witnesses said on Tuesday.

The confrontation was the latest in a long-running feud between the Hawadleh and Galje'el clans in Da'if village, near the town of Jowhar about 90 km (55 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu.

Witnesses said the Galje'el clan militia, apparently retaliating for an earlier attack, ambushed Hawadleh positions in the village on Monday, destroying most of the poorly built houses.

The fighting then spread to a nearby village. No fighting was reported on Tuesday but tension remained high.

Twenty people were killed last month when the Hawadleh attacked a truck belonging to the Galje'el.

Somalia's clans frequently clash over territory and the country has been divided into rival clan-based fiefdoms since 1991, when dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown.

There has been no central government since then but a sense of optimism has returned in recent weeks with the election of

Abdiqassim Salad Hassan as president by a parliament-in-exile in neighboring Djibouti.

Abdiqassim Salad, who was warmly welcomed by tens of thousands of people in Mogadishu last week, still faces opposition from some of Somalia's warlords.

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