Gunmen loyal to Somalia's Islamists fought government forces yesterday in a brief clash some 120 km (74 miles) from the interim government's base, an Islamist source said, heightening fears of all-out war. There was no word on casualties in the first fighting between the two sides since Islamists took Mogadishu from US-backed warlords on June 5, challenging the authority of President Abdullahi Yusuf's Western-backed government.Government militia seized and set on fire two Islamist "technicals," heavily-armed pickup trucks, in the fighting in Qoryooley district, the source said. "I confirm that the clash occurred," the Mogadishu-based Islamist source, who asked not to be named, told Reuters. Government forces brought one of the Islamists' technicals back to Baidoa, the government's temporary provincial base, witnesses in the town said.