By Sahal Abdulle MOGADISHU, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Troops from a powerful Somali Islamist movement clashed with fighters allied to the interim government for the second time since Monday near the semi-autonomous Puntland region, both sides said on Sunday. "The government troops ambushed us last night, forcing our troops to push them," Islamist spokesman Abdirahman Ali Mudey said. "They forced us to take their biggest base in Bandiradley, near Galkaayo." The government said the fighting was still going on and denied its base had been seized. "It is true there are clashes. The Islamists attacked us but they were successfully repelled," Information Minister Ali Ahmed Jama "Jangali" told Reuters. "The fighting is still going on." There was no independent confirmation of the clash. Bandiradly is 690 km (429 miles) north of Mogadishu. If confirmed, the clash could signal the growth of a second frontline in what many fear will become an all-out war that will suck in Horn of Africa rivals Ethiopia and Eritrea, who are backing the government and Islamists respectively. Mudey said the government forces were led by warlord Abdi Awale Qaybdiid, whom the Islamists ejected from Mogadishu in July after defeating him and his U.S.-backed allies who had controlled the capital for years. Speaking on a satellite phone from a location he would not disclose, Qaybdiid told Reuters: "I cannot talk now. I am very busy working." Neither side gave information on casualties, but an Islamist source told Reuters they had lost two fighters. The government on Saturday rejected a deal to restart collapsed talks to avert war with the Islamists, brokered by parliament Speaker Sharif Hassan Sheikh Adan. Arab League-led negotiations failed two weeks ago, and diplomats had said they believed the initiative led by Adan, who has good relations with the Islamists and their businessmen backers, were the last best hope at avoiding a war. Islamist troops and fighters in the government alliance are just kilometres (miles) apart in a frontline near the government base in Baidoa, and also near the Puntland border. Security experts told Reuters on Friday that 11 nations have been sending arms and military equipment to both sides at a dizzying rate since June, even by the standards of a country awash with weapons. In yet another sign of the spillover effect many fear the war will have in the Horn and east Africa, Kenya on Saturday banned all scheduled flights in and out of Somalia and said charters must apply for permission a week in advance. Security experts have told Reuters that Ethiopia will defend any incursion into Puntland, which is a self-governed region that was once led by interim President Abdullahi Yusuf and has provided troops to protect his administration. The Western-backed and internationally recognised government is holed up in the south-central trading town of Baidoa, its only sphere of influence in the nation of 10 million. The Islamists, who have imposed sharia law across most of southern Somalia with their superior military, have all but dashed the government's plans to impose central authority on a nation mired in anarchy since a dictator was deposed in 1991.
