New United Nations secretary general Ban Ki-moon fears that US bombing in southern Somalia could increase hostilities and harm civilians, some of whom are reported to have been killed in the air strikes.

Somali government troops rolled into Mogadishu unopposed today, the prime minister said, hours after an Islamic movement that tried to establish a government based on the Koran abandoned the capital and promised to make a stand in southern Somalia.

Somalia's Islamic movement abandoned the nation's capital today and clan militiamen poured into the streets to take control of Mogadishu, as government forces approached to within 18 miles.

Fighting broke out today between Somalia’s government troops and rival Islamic militia near where an EU envoy was meeting with senior leaders to press for peace talks.

Somalia’s president narrowly escaped an assassination attempt today when a car bomb exploded outside the parliament building in the city of Baidoa, but the blast and a subsequent gunbattle left 11 people dead, officials said.

Two explosions rocked the seat of Somalia’s virtually powerless government today, killing the president’s brother and three others, officials said.

Somalia’s virtually powerless government and an Islamic militia that has seized control of much of southern Somalia have signed an agreement to eventually form a unified national army.

Somalia’s transitional government will meet next week for peace talks with Islamic militant rivals who have seized control of much of the country, a presidential aide said today.

The leader of Somalia’s Islamic fighters called on all Somalis to wage holy war against Ethiopia today, a day after Ethiopian troops rolled into Somalia to protect the weak UN-backed government the Islamic group has challenged for power.

A top official in Somalia’s Islamic militia said his forces will soon seize the base of the country’s weak interim government, a move that would give radical militants uncontested authority over much of the country.