MARKA, Somalia Oct 27 (Garowe Online) - Heavy fighting rocked the southern Somali provincial town of Marka, capital of Lower Shabelle region, early Saturday after military troops attacked police checkpoints, residents and officials said.

The Somali army unit from the 9th Brigade raided the police control checkpoint and briefly captured it. But as the day progressed, police reinforcements arrived and were able to evict the troops from the checkpoint, residents said.

Col. Ali Ganey, Lower Shabelle regional police commander, told Garowe Online that 2 police officers were killed in the intense fighting. A total of seven people, including civilians, were being treated at the regional hospital for gunshot wounds.

Two soldiers from the 9th Brigade were killed in the fighting.

Lower Shabelle officials blamed 9th Brigade commander Col. Ali "Habad" Ibrahim for the violence.

But Col. Habad denied the accusations, saying that "militias in police uniform" attacked his soldiers.

Lower Shabelle Governor Abdulkadir Mohamed Nur said soldiers who "broke away" from the 9th Brigade initiated the attack on the police checkpoint.

Locals say a financial dispute that has been brewing between senior Lower Shabelle regional officials and military commanders is the root cause of the troubles.

On Wednesday, a proposal to change the tax-sharing system by Governor Nur ended in disagreement with local district commissioners protesting the changes. [ Full story]

Col. Habad and his 9th Brigade troops were dispatched to Lower Shabelle region in August, but the region has been rocked by violence since their arrival.

In Baidoa, where the Somali parliament is based, MP Mohamed Hassan Fiki from Lower Shabelle region accused the regional leadership of being responsible for the violence.

MP Fiki said Lower Shabelle Governor Nur is a "puppet" for Yusuf Indha Ade, the former Islamist-allied warlord who ruled the region until December 2006.

Source: Garowe Online