Mogadishu - A Somali insurgent leader who the United States says is linked to al-Qaeda on Monday denied reports that he had been seriously injured in fierce fighting between his militia and a pro-government Islamist group.

Over 100 people died in fierce battles that broke out in the central Somali town of Wabho on Friday between the pro-government Ahlu Sunna Waljamea and Hizbul Islam, led by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys.

Ahlu Sunna Waljamea claimed to have seriously wounded, and even killed, Aweys. However, Aweys told journalists in the capital Mogadishu that the claims were just propaganda.

The battles in Wabho were part of a recent flare-up in fighting in Somalia, where Hizbul Islam and allied Islamist insurgent group al-Shabaab are trying to topple President Sheikh Sharif Sheikh Ahmed.

Hundreds of people, many of them civilians, have died since early May and around 100,000 have fled Mogadishu, where the warring parties have exchanged almost daily automatic weapon and mortar fire.

Sheikh Sharif came to power earlier this year in a UN-backed peace process aimed at finally bringing an end to 18 years of chaos in the Horn of Africa nation.

The new president, a moderate Islamist who once worked with the Islamists, has succeeded in getting some former rebels onboard, but Hizbul Islam and al-Shabaab say he is too close to the West.

Somalia was plunged into anarchy with the 1991 ouster of dictator Mohamed Siad Barre.

The situation worsened in early 2007 when rebels launched an insurgency against Ethiopian troops who invaded to kick out the Islamic Courts Union, an Islamist group that had seized power.

Almost 18,000 people have died in the ensuing violence, and foreign fighters from Afghanistan and Iraq have increasingly been entering Somalia to join the fray.

An African Union peacekeeping force of 4,300 troops from Burundi and Uganda is helping the government cling onto power, but the authorities in reality control very little territory.(dpa)