MASERU, Lesotho (CNN) -- A measure of calm returned to the burned-out capital of Lesotho on Thursday as South African and Botswana troops maintained a close watch on the lawless streets.

Bands of looters still roamed the streets, but in smaller numbers than on Wednesday.

A pall of smoke still hung over the city, which was engulfed by chaos on Tuesday when South Africa poured troops into the tiny, mountainous kingdom at the request of Prime Minister Pakalitha Mosisili to quell what he called an army mutiny.

The sound of gunfire was only sporadically heard in Maseru on Thursday, a sign that the chaotic situation may be settling down. And on the city's outskirts -- also unlike previous days -- no boom of artillery or other shooting could be heard.

Some shops in the almost completely gutted business district continued to smolder Thursday.

Smoke plumes towered over the city late Wednesday from arson fires that had been burning since 600 South African soldiers crossed the border Tuesday. Some 200 soldiers from Botswana joined the intervention force Wednesday. The South African/Botswanan operation is being conducted in the name of the Southern African Development Community.

Outside Maseru on Wednesday, the boom of artillery and the rattle of gunfire echoed through the hills as intervention forces tried to snuff out resistance at a military barracks and other key areas.

South African troops distributed fliers telling the 2 million people of Lesotho the intervention was aimed at preventing "anarchy" and at creating "a stable environment for law and order."

But facing stiff resistance that killed at least eight South African soldiers, the intervention force announced Wednesday the peacekeepers would use heavier weapons and would shoot to kill.

"All we know is they are shooting at us, and we are fighting back," South African army spokesman Maj. Ben van Zyl said, adding that he didn't know if the resistance came only from the mutineers or if they had been joined by loyalist Lesotho soldiers.

Seventeen more South Africans were wounded in the combat -- South Africa's first military intervention since the end of apartheid.

Publicly endorsing his country's intervention in the enclave, South African President Nelson Mandela told reporters that 58 Lesotho soldiers had been killed in the fight to put down the widening revolt by members of the Lesotho army.

Mandela, on a farewell trip to visit U.S. President Bill Clinton, said intervention was necessary to end "chaos and anarchy."

But the operation has turned a smoldering conflict, which had claimed five lives in seven weeks, into an urban war pitting government supporters against soldiers and political parties demanding that Mosisili and his Cabinet step down.

Lesotho's government requested the intervention two weeks ago amid a revolt by junior Lesotho military officers and strikes that paralyzed Maseru. The mutineers had apparently sided with opposition parties that claimed elections last May -- swept by the ruling Lesotho Congress Party -- were rigged.

An opposition leader, Molap Qhobela of the Basotholand Congress Party, predicted the intervention would solve nothing.

"The (South Africans) are an invading army of aggression," he told reporters. "As soon as they go we are back to square one."

Some 900 people, mostly Asians, have reportedly crossed the border and sought asylum in neighboring South Africa. Chinese and Indian merchants were particular targets of the looters.

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.

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