Reports from Somalia say there was fresh factional fighting on Tuesday night in the south-central town of Baidoa.

A spokesman Aden Qalinle for one of the factions -- the Rahanwein Resistance Army -- told the French news agency, AFP, that it had clashed with forces loyal to the south Mogadishu strongman, Hussein Mohamed Aidid, killing fourteen of Aidid's fighters and losing eight of its own men.

The French news agency quoted one of Aidid's commanders as describing the fighting in Baidoa as "a small skirmish." The Rahanwein Resistance Army has been fighting Aidid's forces in Baidoa since September 1995 when Hussein Aidid's father seized the town from the control of a semi-autonomous administration by the Rahanwein clan.