The two rival sides have reinforced positions in disputed residential districts of the capital. At least 62 people have been killed there and more than 200 wounded in fierce fighting since Wednesday.
Terrified residents said they were certain new clashes would erupt. "People here are very much afraid that violence will erupt again so long as militiamen are still present in the disputed areas," said Ahmed Said, a trader.
The fighting pits gunmen loyal to hardline Islamic courts against notorious warlords grouped under the US-backed Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT).
Overnight duels and clashes subsided early on Sunday without a formal truce, but Somali elders continued to press militia chiefs to halt the violence. It’s been the deadliest fighting in Mogadishu in the last 15 years.
Sporadic gunfire could still be heard in southern Daynile and northern
Galgalato districts which have been pounded by heavy rounds of artillery, rocket and mortar rounds, killing several people and displacing thousands of civilians.
The fighting, which pits gunmen loyal to hardline Islamic courts against notorious warlords grouped under the US-backed Alliance for the Restoration of Peace and Counter-Terrorism (ARPCT).
The prominent Mogadishu warlord Osman Hassan Ali Atto, who is also a minister in the transitional government and has not taken sides in the latest skirmishes, said dialogue was the only way to stop the bloodletting.
"Let us talk and negotiate," Mr Atto said. "Guns have been unable to resolve our crisis in the past 15 years," he said.
Mr Atto’s appeal follows talks with Islamic courts and plans for him to meet the warlords alliance in a bid to clinch a lasting truce in the shattered capital.
Somalia's largely powerless transitional government, based in Baidoa about 250 kilometres northwest of Mogadishu, has blamed both the alliance and the United States for the fighting.