Islamic leaders today ordered Somalis to hand in their weapons, but did not say how they would enforce the directive in a heavily armed country some fear is about to go to war with its neighbour.

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.

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.

The Islamic militia that has seized control of Somalia’s capital said today the killing of a Swedish journalist was planned by a foreign enemy that wants to shatter weeks of relative peace in the Horn of Africa nation.

African and Western diplomats were discussing the details of a peacekeeping mission to Somalia, an African Union spokesman said today, after militias vowing to impose Islamic rule took over the capital of the Horn of Africa country.

An Islamic militia today said it had seized Somalia’s capital Mogadishu after weeks of some of the bloodiest fighting in 15 years of anarchy in the lawless Horn of Africa nation.

A ceasefire today allowed residents to venture into the streets of a northern Mogadishu neighbourhood that has been a battleground for more than a week in Somalia.