Fighting in Somalia has killed at least 138 people and displaced 63,000 others in the last two weeks.

Militants from Islamic groups Hizbul Islam and al Shabaab have fought government-allied Ahlu Sunna Waljamaca over three towns in the centre of the east African country..

“At least 138 people died and 344 others were injured,” Ali Yasin Gedi, of Elman human rights group, said today. “It has also displaced 63,000 people from Galgadud and Hiiraan regions.”

Hizbul Islam and its rival al Shabaab — which the US says is linked with al Qaeda — want to impose strict sharia law in Somalia, which has had no functional government since 1991.

Ahlu Sunna, which is aligned to president Sheikh Shari Ahmed's weak UN-backed administration, advocates a more moderate version of Islam.

Since the start of 2007, violence has killed at least 19,000 Somalis and displaced 1.5 million people. The UN said this week that 3,000 Somalis had arrived in Ethiopian refugee camps, and that 4,175 had arrived in Kenya this month.