Thousands of Somalis fled their homes today as government and Ethiopians troops used artillery to defend against Islamic fighters attempting to advance on the UN-backed regime’s only stronghold.

Bodies lay in the streets and fighters pounded each other with heavy artillery and mortars for a third day today as Somalia’s Islamic leader announced the country was now at war, leaving a day-old peace initiative in tatters.

Somalia’s most powerful politician today offered the country’s Islamic movement a role in government, but said it must pull back its militia to avert a looming war.

THE supreme leader of Somalia’s powerful Islamist movement has purportedly authorised suicide attacks against “prominent” targets in Kenya and Ethiopia, the United States said.

The leader of Somalia’s Islamic radicals today urged Ethiopians to revolt against their government, which he described as an oppressive regime led by an unpopular minority ethnic group.

SOMALIA’S powerful Islamists yesterday said they would not attend peace talks with the interim government until Ethiopian troops left their soil.

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.

Members of a group listed by the US as a terrorist band are running the capital of Somalia, days after Islamic fighters wrested control of the city from warlords, Ethiopia’s Prime Minister Meles Zenawi said today.

A FUNDAMENTALIST Muslim whom the US suspects of collaborating with al-Qaida terrorists has been named as the new leader of an Islamic militia that has seized control of Somalia’s capital.