MOGADISHU, Sept 14, 2007 (AFP) - A insurgent attack on a police patrol killed two police and four civilians, a police spokesman said Friday.

Heavy fighting erupted in the Suqa Holaha district of northern Mogadishu late Thursday after insurgents attacked a police patrol vehicle, a resident said.

Mohamed Deeq Adan told AFP how he saw the police vehicle destroyed and six bodies lay on the ground.

Police spokesman Abdul Wahid Mohamed confirmed the latest in a string of attacks in the the volatile capital since Ethiopia-backed government soldiers defeated an Islamist movement.

"We have lost two policemen in the fighting, but I was also told that four other civilians were killed in the fighting," Mohamed told AFP.

Ethiopian troops, government soldiers and African Union forces in Mogadishu have failed to stop the near-daily attacks blamed on elements of the ousted Islamist group.

A six-week reconciliation conference that wrapped up last month and boycotted by the Islamists also produced no major breakthrough.

Years of inter-clan bickering in Somalia exploded into a nationwide campaign that ousted dictator Mohamed Siad Barre in 1991. Unrest since then has defied numerous attempts to restore peace.

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