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MOGADISHU, Somalia (AP) - Three days of fighting between Islamic militia fighters and forces opposed to the clerics' growing power have left at least 73 people dead in the Somali capital, including 13 people killed Friday when the militias shelled their opponents.
Fundamentalist Islamic clerics have increasingly sought to set themselves up as an alternative to the clan-based fiefdoms and the transitional federal government that is struggling to assert its authority.
But businessmen and warlords who formed an armed alliance last month describe the fundamentalist clerics as terrorists and have accused them of killing moderate intellectuals, Muslim scholars and former military officials in a string of unexplained murders.
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