MOGADISHU, April 26, SPA -- Somali Prime Minister AliMohamed Gedi claimed victory over insurgents inMogadishu on Thursday, after nine days of bloody streetbattles using tanks and artillery that have left hundredsdead. «We have won the fighting against the insurgents,» theprime minister told The Associated Press by telephone from the Somali capital, saying that small, mopping-upoperations were still under way. «The worst of thefighting in the city is now over.» Machine gun fire and artillery fire could still be heardin the south of Mogadishu, a wrecked coastal city of 2million people. Gedi said the 340,000 Somalis who have fled the worstfighting the city has seen for the last 15 years could nowbegin returning to their homes. He said government forces and their Ethiopian allies had captured an insurgent stronghold in the northern part of the city and that more than 100 fighters had surrendered.--SPA www.spa.gov.sa/444458